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THE 



Settlement of the Jews 



IN NORTH AMERICA. 



BY 



CHARI^ES R DAI,Y, LI..D. 

I! 
President of the American Geographical Society, 



Edited, with Notes and Appendices, by 
MAX J. KOHLER, A.M., LL.B. 



NEW YORK : 
PHILIP COWEN, 213-215 East 44TH Street. 

1893. 



o'\ 



^ 




I \ 



Copyrighted 1893, 
By CHAS. p. DALY and MAX J. KOHLER. 






6^ 



u 



PREFACE. 

More than twenty years have now elapsed since 
Judge Daly's work was first presented to the public, 
yet I feel that no excuse or apology is necessary 
for its re-publication to-day. 

Mr. Daly, then Chief Justice of the Court of 
Common Pleas of this city, originally prepared the 
work in the form of an address delivered at the cele- 
bration of the 5otli anniversary of the Hebrew Benev- 
olent Society of New York, on April li, 1872, 
and then enlarged it for publication in Tke Jewish 
Times of that year. Subsequently, the accomplisbed 
and erudite author utilized a portion of the same 
data in an address delivered at the laying of the cor- 
ner-stone of the new Hebrew Orphan Asylum, New ^^ 
York, May 17, 1883.*- It seems to me that the work 
has not lost the smallest element of interest since 
that time, but, on the contrary, appeals to-day to a 
much larger public than then, and, as, unfortunately, 
it did not appear in' durable form, will seem to be 
new to the large majority of its readers of co-day. 
Here and there, the student of American Jewish 
history has, since its original appearance, re-discovered 
Judge Daly's work in out-of-the-way and few-and- 
far-between corners, and drawn upon it as by far the 



* This address was printed in full in The American Hebrew 
at the time and published in pamphlet form. 



v/ 



Vt PREFACE 

most valuable, comprehensive and interesting woik 
on the subject- Many others, to my knowledge, have, 
after search, been unable to obtain the work, and 
the purpose of the present re-publication is to make it 
accessible to these, as well as to the large public whom 
the work will please for more general reasons. The 
causes of our interest in a work like the present are 
numerous and varied. Perhaps the most natural 
source of interest is our race pride, our gratifica- 
tion over the deeds of members of our race, pres- 
ent or past, purely because of our common ties of 
race. 

Often this interest in and enthusiasm over our 
past is not only justifiable but commendable. When 
a recent emigre, like Goldwin Smith, has the arro- 
gance and effrontery to characterize the Jews, espe- 
cially those of America, as parasites, who wait till 
others have sown and then rush in to divide with 
them the harvest, it is well to point to co-religionists 
who for centuries were engaged in this country in the 
arduous, and often unproductive occupation of sow- 
ing, as a conclusive refutation of such assertions, 
born of ignorance and prejudice. In this sense we 
may be proud and rejoice that Jews were interested 
co-workers in the discovery, settlement and devel- 
opment of our land, and acquaint ourselves as 
well as our Christian neighbors with those incidents 
in our national history. 

The work under consideration appeals to us also 
in other ways. No statement has, perhaps, 
come to be better recognized than that we cannot 



PREFACE Vll 

understand the present without a study of the past. 
Incidents and traits suddenly come to the surface 
which a necessarily superficial consideration of 
present conditions does not explain. Other forces 
besides those we generally recognize, are working 
about us, and not the less effectively because the 
shallow, practical man of to day fails to note them. 
Problems of the present may often be solved by a 
study of past experiences. Besides, it has at length 
become recognized here and abroad that American 
Judaism has its own peculiar characteristics, virtues 
and vices, its own line of development. A work like 
the present one throws much new light and adds 
considerable interesting data to a study of these 
questions. 

Since Judge Daly's work first appeared, there has 
been a sweeping revolution apparent in American /^ / 

Judaism. He wrote about the middle of the German- \ 

Jewish migration to America; since then other and 
far more numerous classes of Jews have arrived here, <- — ^ 

while their predecessors have multiplied and thrived. 
Our charities have increased and developed beyond 
all expectations, our standing and influence in the 
community even more so. But what interests us even 
more at this point is the intellectual development of 
the body of American Jews. We have erected and 
patronize scores of libraries. We have representa- 
tives in the faculties of nearly all our large colleges, 
many distinguished scholars among them. The Jewish 
press has increasedin influence as well as numerically. 
Jewish Publication Societies which failed to interest 



Vtn PREFACE 

enough persons then, are to-day in that respect at 
least, thriving. Is it not time, then, that we take 
more interest in our past, and proceed to study it 
more carefully, and not content ourselves with stop- 
ping at a period two thousand years behind us ? 
Perhaps the best answer to the question is the 
establishment of the American Jewish Historical 
Society, with many able workers enlisted in its 
service. The formation of such a society and the 
promises it offers for the future, seem to nie the best 
proofs possible that the publication to day of Judge 
Daly's work, will not be followed by twenty )'ears of 
inactivity and lack of interest in continuing and 
developing the subject-matter. No better work to 
start with, upon which to build, than Judge Daly's can 
be couceived of. Almost every line affords a chance 
for interesting elaboration and investigation. Nor can 
anything more conducive to systematic study and 
intelligent collection of data be obtained. Even at 
the last meeting of the Historical Society, there 
were several clear cases of unconscious re-discover- 
ing of data known to and employed by Judge Daly. 
It is with the expectation that the republication of 
the present work will be of interest and profit to the 
general public, as well as to the scholar, that it 
appears anew to-day. It is not for me to praise 
Judge Daly's work; the reader will soon have au 
opportunity to do that himself. I may be pardoned, 
however, if I add that the narrative is always interest-^ 
ing, no matter how trivial the incident might appear, 
if elaborated by some less able pen. Besides the 



PREFACE tX 

most intimate acquaintance with the data of New- 
York and American history generally, Judge Daly's 
work is characterized by absolute accuracy of state- 
ment and impartiality of treatment. It is therefore 
with pleasure that we turn to his account of a people 
whom he describes as having "dwelt upon this island 
for more than two centuries, and who, though not, 
until a recent period, very numerous, have, as an 
integral portion of our population, exercised a very 
material influence upon the commercial development 
and prosperity of this city." 

Judge Daly's work, as it originally appeared, con- 
tained numerous citations of authorities in the foot- 
notes. The editor has materially increased these, so 
as to render the work more valuable to the student, 
lias verified almost every statement, and added some 
additional notes bearing on the text. All his notes 
■are signed "Editor." He has also supplied an Intro- 
duction, based largely on a paper read by him 
before the American Jewish Historical Society in 
Philadelphia in December, 1892, upon "The 
Beginnings of New York Jewish History." He 
also wishes to add that he has attempted throughout 
to preserve absolutely the identity of Judge Daly's 
work, and has therefore in several instances 
Teluctantly omitted notes bearing only distantly 
on the text. 

His thanks are due to Judge Daly for kindly 
■consenting to the republication of the work. 
Furthermore, Judge Daly kindly volunteered to 
•write an additional instalment for this series; it is 



^ PREFACE 



needless to say that his offer has been gratefully 
accepted. This new portion will appear as a 
supplementary instalment. 

Max J. KoHLER. 



INTRODUCTION. 



About 70 years ago an astute Yankee, after having 
traveled about abroad for some time, wrote a book in 
which he described, among the other things which 
had come under his observation, the unfortunate con- 
dition of the Jews in Europe, especially of Italy. He 
expresses surprise that the Jews had not availed 
themselves of America's civil and religious liberty, 
and accounts for the fact in two ways: "The one 
theory is based on their reputed dread of the sea, 'for 
the water,' say they, 'hath no beams.' Another rea- 
son is predicated on the proverbial astuteness of us 
New Englanders, with whom not even the Jews dare 
venture into competition." If our Yankee were to 
reappear in our midst to-day, I think he would be 
bound to confess either that human nature had 
changed since his day, or that neither of his two 
theories is satisfactory. I have availed myself of his 
amusing statement, however, because it is a capital 
illustration of the popular ignorance of American- 
Jewish history which has not yet disappeared, even 
mong the American Jews themselves as a body. 
While Judge Daly's work is the most interesting and 
important presentation of the claims of the Jews to 
credit for long association with the destinies of our 
country from early colonial times down to our own 
day, the last few years have opened up a field of 
research which gives promises of rich returns, going 
to show that the Jews have been actively interested 
in the discovery, colonization and settlement of 
America from the days of Columbus on. I propose 
to dwell on this subject in this brief Introduction 
to Judge Daly's work. 



xn INTRODUCTION 

Prof. M. Kayserling has made the department 
of Spanish -Jewish relations to the Discovery 
and Colonization of the New World peculiarly 
his own. While his early works on "Sephardim" 
and "Portuguese Discoveries" only touched on Amer- 
ica, his recent investigations — so far as we can judge 
from his interesting article on "The First Jew on 
American Soil" in The Menorah for October, 1892, 
and the reports received from him and not yet pub- 
lished, based on personal examination of the Spanish 
archives with particular view to this subject— will be 
authoritative expositions of the work of the Jews 
in this connection. Nor is it strange that the Jews 
should have actively participated in the work of 
Spanish and Portuguese explorers. The indebted- 
ness of the modern world to the brilliant achieve- 
ments of the Moors in the way of navigation and 
geographical science, which alone made the era of 
discoveries possible, is to-day recognized. Yet the 
direct connection of the Moort> with Christian Europe 
was infinitesimal. As in the case of medicine and in 
the various industries, so also here, the Jews became 
the intermediaries between Moors and Christians, and 
imparted the scientific discoveries which the former 
so liberally shared with them, and which they them- 
selves did something towards enlarging, to Christian 
Europe, during and after the Moorish occupation of 
Spain. Various writers have touched on this subject 
from time to time, and it is indeed an interesting 
one. I may be pardoned, however, for calling atten- 
tion to a valuable paper, collecting much of the data 
on the subject by my father. Rev. Dr. K. Kohler, 
read before the German Historical Society of New 
York, and printed in the Belletristisches Journal 
in May, 1891 ; a rather inadequate translation 
of the same, printed without the author's 



INTRODUCTION Xttt 

supervision, appeared in TAe Menorah for July, 
1891. 

Eugene Lawrence, in a valuable article on "The 
Mystery of Columbus," which appeared in Harpers^ 
Monthly recently (April, 1892), indicates briefly the 
work of the Jews in this direction. Their work may 
be briefly summarized as having been : first, in 
spreading and developing geographical science; next, 
in participating in some of the colonizing expeditions 
themselves, though under serious difficulties and 
under disguised names and professions of religion; 
and, lastly, in some of the early settlements them- 
selves. Prof. Kayserling has proven that there were 
secret Jews (Maranos) with Columbus on his first 
voyages, one of whom at once settled in Cuba, and 
that there were Jewish financiers who aided Columbus 
in securing the funds for his voyages. Because of 
royal interdictions and fears of the Inquisition, it is 
extremely difficult to identify the Jews in these 
expeditions. The same is true of the early settlements 
in America under the Spanish and the Portuguese, as 
in Mexico and Brazil. In the former country, scarcely 
any but those whom the Inquisition, unfortunately 
for them, exposed as Jews, can be to-day recognized- 
Of the latter, it seems clear that Jews ,settled in the 
country as early as 1548, living generally as New 
Christians. During the short-lived Dutch occupation 
of Brazil, thej' resumed their Jewish worship, but 
paid the penalty in part at least with their lives 
when the Portuguese regained control. But this 
portion of our history is still so fragmentary and 
obscure, that we cannot profitably linger over it, espe' 
cially as it is rather foreign to our subject, ^he history 
of the Jews in North America. 

There is one further departure from the subject, 
for which I must, however, ask the reader's kind in- 



X IV INTRODUCTION 

dulgence, especially as I hope to show that the whole 
matter is iutimately connected with the first arrival 
of Jews in New York. I shall proceed to set this forth 
at some length. 

Ill 1859, a paper was read before the New York 
Historical Society by Rev. Dr. A. Fischell of New 
York, on The History of the Jews in America, which 
led to an interesting discussion in which the lecturer 
was forced to take sides against the American histo- 
rian George Bancroft on the question whether the 
Jews had enjoyed fuller liberties in Rhode Island 
under Roger Williams' successors than under the 
Dutch, Bancroft espousing the cause of the former, 
Dr. Fischell of the latter. This is an interesting 
question because, while we are constantly reminded 
of Rhode Island's toleration, the Dutch do not 
generally receive due credit for this trait from 
American historians. As a large portion of Judge 
Daly's work is devoted to the history of the Jews in 
places settled by the Dutch, — for the Jewish settle- 
ment in New York gave rise to a number of others, — 
this subject of Dutch toleration is of considerable inter- 
est to us. This work will show that, neither under 
the Dutch nor in Rhode Island, were the rights of the 
Jewish settlers as extensive as those of the adherents 
of the prevailing religions. Nor does it appear that 
the Dutch government originally intended to pursue 
the same policy of religions toleration as to her 
colonial possessions as she adopted at home, lor we 
know that the very Puritans who were permitted to 
enjoyAmsterdam's generous hospitality and toleration, 
were refused permission to settle in the Dutch 
Colonies, prior to arranging for the colony which was 
subsequently planted at Plymouth. 

It required the leveling and humanizing influences 
of Commerce to bring about religious toleration, and 



INTRODUCTION XV 

this explains the fact that the Dutch West India 
Company took a different attitude in this matter than 
the Government, in sauctiotiiug and encouragiuj^^ the 
settlement of the Jews in New Netherland. The letter 
directed by the Dutch West India Company Directors 
to Stuyvesant, containing this grant, is interesting as 
showing the conflict between old-time prejudice and in- 
tolerance and the commercial instinct of the Dutch as 
to the desirability of giving the permission prayed for. 
The words "and also because of the large amount of 
capital which the Jews have invested in the shares of 
this Company, ' ' were no doubt a very important argu- 
ment in favor of making the concession. 

But it is my privilege to point out a much earlier 
connection between the Jews and the Dutch 
West India Company, which colonized New Nether- 
land. It appears that William Usselinx, who had for 
many years agitated the question of incorporating the 
Company, but had not found a favorable ear till 1620 
or thereabouts, was annoyed to find that the States 
General had received a draft of a proposed charter 
for a West India Company which differed in several 
essential features from the one he had proposed. The 
opposition charter provided for a series of attacks on 
the Spanish silver fleets by the Company's vessels 
and for means for depriving the Dutch of their Bra- 
zilian settlements. One of the chief arguments in 
favor of this proposition was the assistance that would 
be secured from the Jews who were settled in Brazil 
and who had offered to co-operate with the Dutch, 
so as to secure the more liberal Dutch rule instead of 
the harsh and intolerant Portuguese. In Dr. Jame- 
son's^ interesting biography of William of Usselinx, 



I American Historical Association Papers, Vol. II, p. 76, and 
authorities cited there. 



:XVl INTRODUCTION 

several letters from U."^seliux to the States General 
are found, with references to other, original authori- 
ties, which bear out my statements. 

In one of these letters we find Usselinx assailing this 
proposed charter by means of a most savage attack 
ou the Jews: "No trust should be put in the promises 
made there (in Brazil) by the Jews, a race faithless and 
pusillanimous, enemies to all the world and especially 
to all Christians, caring not whose house burns, so 
long as they may warm themselves at the coals, who 
would rather see a hundred thousand Christians 
perish than suffer the loss of a hundred crowns." 
Usselinx's abuse was of no avail, however, for the 
modified charter was adopted despite his opposition, 
and the demand for shares in the Company, which 
had been rather lax before, was greatly increased. 
Nor is this surprising, for the trade between New 
Netherland and Holland in those days, especially 
when compared with the enormous amount of the 
Company's capital, was trifling indeed. It may well 
be claimed that the Company would have had a very 
brief and uneventful history, had it not been for the 
two features in question. I doubt whether the Dutch 
^West India Company would ever have settled New 
York, and still more whether it would have been able 
to sustain the infant colony, had it not been for them. 
One year a dividend of 75 per cent was declared on the 
six million gulden capital, in consequence of the cap- 
ture of the Spanish silver fleet. I have already cited 
the clause from an official letter showing that the Jews 
were heavily interested in the company's stock. I 
may add that Menasseh ben Israel in his "Humble 
Address to Cromwell," states that "the Jews were 
enjoying a good part of the (Dutch) East and West 
India Companies." Judge Daly is furthermore author- 
ity for the statement that the Compan}' had several 



INTRODUCTION XVU 

Jewish directors. It seems to me to be a very reason 
able supposition that Jews were among the projectors 
of the Company, for it could only have been to their 
own co-religionists that the Brazilian Jews would 
have communicated their proffers of aid in case of a 
Dutch attack on Brazil, for they were living in Brazil 
under the guise of New Christians, and would not 
have ventured to expose themselves to any but 
co-religionists. 

Nor were the promises of aid on the part of the 
Brazilian Jews idle and untrustworthy, Usselinx to 
the contrary notwithstanding. In De Beauchamp's 
Histoire dn Bresil II p. 159 and in Southey's History 
of Brazil (Second edition I, pp. 477, 479, 495, supple- 
mental note no. 135 and vol. II p. 241) we read that 
before the Dutch fleet directed against Brazil put to 
sea, the States General obtained most useful informa- 
tion as to the condition of affairs in Brazil through 
the intermediation of Jews who were settled there, 
and who nearly all ardently desired to become sub- 
jects of the United States because of their great toler- 
ation in religious matters. 

Unfortunately for these Jews, the first Dutch occu- 
pation of Brazil was short-lived, and their fate when 
the Portuguese regained control was such as we have 
elsewhere stated. When the Dutch again came into 
power those that had escaped death again threw off" the 
guise of Christians and lived avowedly as Jews, until 
by the terms of the first.Dutch capitulation in 1654, the 
Portuguese again became the masters. By the express 
terms of the capitulation, the Portuguese promised 
the Jews "an amnesty, in all wherein they could 
promise it," words which left an ominous latitude for 
intolerance. That very year, a party of Jews left 
Bahia and took passage in the ship St. Catrina, which 
arrived soon after in New Amsterdam. It is with 



XVm INTRODUCTION 

their history and that of their co-religionists who sub- 
sequently followed their example in settling in North 
America, that Judge Daly's work deals. 

M.J. K. 



The Settlement of the Jews in 
North America. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF THE JEWS IN 
NORTH AMERICA. 



Whenlcousented to comply with the request made, 
that I would address the audience assembled here 
this evening, it occurred to me, that an occasion so 
interesting as the celebration of the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the oldest benevolent institution established 
by people of the Jewish persuasion in the City of New 
York, would be an appropriate one, upon which to 
give some account of the first settlement of the Jewish 
people in this city, and of their early history. The 
facts, so far as I am aware, have never been collected 
and put in any narrative form. Our local or state 
histories contain very little upon the subject. Even 
our latest and fullest historian, Mr. Brodhead, men- 
tions, I think, but two circumstances in connection 
with a people who have dwelt upon this island for 
more than two centuries, and who, though not, until 
a recent period, very numerous, have, as an integral 
portion of our population, exercised a very material 
influence upon the commercial development and pros- 
perity of this city. 

Having given much attention to our early annals, 
and having had occasion very frequently to consult the 
documents and records, which constitute the material, 
from which our municipal history is derived, I shall 
be enabled to put together with but little effort the 
information they supply of the first settlement of 
people of the Jewish faith in this city and of what is 
known respecting them here for at least the first cen- 
tury and a half. In commencing this inquiry, it ma}' 
gratify those present to be able to state, and especially 
upon the semi-centennial of this benevolent institu- 



2 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

tion, that one of the earliest documents, showing the 
existence here of people of the Jewish persuasion, is 
the record of an act of benevolence on the part of a 
Jew to a friendless Christian stranger, and certainly 
the history of no people in any place can begin with 
an incident more creditable to them than the exercise 
of that charity which is limited to no sect or creed — 
which recognizes but two things, the existence of 
want and the ability to relieve it. 

It is no doubt known to many here, that this city 
was founded by the Dutch and that for the first half 
century of its existence it was in possession of and 
governed by people from Holland. The first Jewish 
emigration occurred during this period, and it may 
be of interest to give some account of the circum- 
stances which led to it. 

It occurs in the wise purpose of the Great Ruler of 
the Universe, that calamitous events are not infre- 
quently accompanied by other events, which mitigate 
the force of the calamity and prevent its occurrence 
thereafter. No event has proved more beneficial to 
the Jewish people than the discovery of America, and 
yet the very year that it occurred was 1492, the year 
of the commencement of the terrible persecution of 
the Jews in Europe, which led to their expulsion 
from France, Spain and Portugal, an event in its 
immediate effects more disastrous to them than even 
the destruction of Jerusalem. Spain, the chief agent 
in that terrible work and the most intolerant and 
cruel of the nations of Europe, having, during her 
despotic rule afterwards in the Low Countries, under- 
taken to crush out there all freedom of opinion, en- 
countered a spirit of resistance on the part of the 
brave descendants of those Batavian tribes that had 
rescued Holland from the sea, which culminated in 
that great political event in 1572, known as the 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 3 

Revolt of tlie Netherlands. The famous union of 
Utrecht was followed by the noble declaration of 
William the Silent, upon being installed as Stadhol- 
der in 1581, that "he should not suflferany man to be 
called to account, molested or injured for his faith 
and conscience," and when by the Truce of Antwerp 
in 1609, the freedom of the Netherlands was assured, 
the Dutch signalized their independence by throwing 
open their country to the persecuted of all sects and 
nations. Among the earliest to avail themselves of 
this place of refuge were the Jews, and persons of 
that persuasion flocked in from Spain, Portugal, Ger- 
many and Poland, settling in the free cities of Hol- 
land and especially in the commercial city of Amster- 
dam. Amsterdam presented the spectacle of a city 
where all religions were tolerated, and where men of 
all shades of political opinion found themselves se- 
cure in their persons and property. By a writer of 
that day it was stigmatized as "a comme-n harbor of 
all opinions and of all heresies." By another, in the 
figurative language then in fashion, "as a cage of un- 
clean birds," and even Andrew Marvel, the friend of 
Milton and the incorruptible patriot, wrote a derisive 
poem upon Holland, in which Amsterdam was de- 
scribed with its mixed population of "Turk, Chris- 
tian, Pagan, Jew," its "bank of conscience," where 
"all opinions found credit and exchange;" closing his 
poem with a line, which he certainly meant in no 
spirit of compliment: 

" The universal church is only there." 

Among the Jewish emigrants who then flocked into 

Holland, the most numerous and the most cultivated 

were the Jews from Portugal, many of them coming 

from Leira, a town in the province of Estramadura, 

which enjoys the honor of being the third place in 



4 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

Europe in which a printing press was setup, the com- 
mercial progress and prosperity of which was due in a 
large measure to its highly intelligent and industri- 
ous Jewish population as its decline may be attributed 
to their expatriation and expulsion. The Portuguese 
Jews settled chiefly in Amsterdam, where they were 
distinguished by their industry, energy, intelligence 
and probity, and here at this period, 1632, the phil- 
osopher Spinoza, the child of two of these Jewish 
emigrants, was born. 

The tolerant spirit of Holland found its fruits in 
the rapid advance of the Dutch in all commercial 
pursuits. A distinction was made in favor of the Re- 
formed Protestant faith, which was by law the estab- 
lished religion, but all others were tolerated. Though 
the position of the Jews in Holland was in marked 
contrast with every other part of Europe, they were 
not entirely free from restrictions. They were by 
law forbidden to write or speak disparagingly of the 
Christian religion, or to make converts. They were 
not allowed to intermarry with Christians, nor to 
follow any mechanical pursuit, or to engage in retail 
trade, but were in all other respects admitted to full 
political privileges with the rest of their fellow-citi- 
zens. 

They were at first required to exercise the rites of 
their religion within the privacy of theii own houses, 
or at least in houses not having the outward appear- 
ance of religious edifices. This restriction was re- 
moved when Louis Napoleon, the brother of Napo- 
leon I, became King of Holland; and when I was in 
Amsterdam twenty years ago, the Portuguese Syna- 
gogue there was regarded as one of the finest in Eur- 
ope. It was certainly more imposing than the one I 
visited in Leghorn, then said to be the largest on 
the Continent; but both were interesting in my 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 5 

eyes as early monuments of entire religious freedom. 
The Jews of Amsterdam, through their capacity for 
business, their energy and their integrity, became 
wealthy and influential, and were shareholders to a 
large amount in the West India Company, the com- 
mercial corporation by which the City of New York 
was founded. This body, though ostensibly incorpor- 
ated to promote the settlement of new countries and 
for the general purpose of traffic, was in reality organ- 
ized to secure pecuniary gain through the capture of 
the richly laden Spanish vessels, and by the seizure 
of the Spanish and Portuguese possessions in 
the West Indies and South America. In fact, the 
States General, as one of the means of crippling 
Spain, acquiesced in the exercise by this corporation of 
the warlike powers of a nation and it had at one time 
no less than seventy armed vessels in its service. Its 
object in founding New York was not the establish- 
ment of a city upon the banks of the Hudson, but to 
have a haven for its vessels there in connection with 
a more extended field of operations in the West Indies 
and South America. In 1630 Bahia or St. Salvador? 
then the capital of Brazil, was captured by its fleet 
and from that time to 1642, its career was one of con- 
quest in Brazil. Bahia was then, as it is still, a place 
of great maritime importance, and when the West 
India Company threw open the trade of Brazil in 
1638, the Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam emigrated 
to Bahia in considerable numbers, to which they 
were attracted not only by the advantage of trade, 
but as the capital of a country where they could speak 
their native language, and under Dutch rule enjoy 
entire freedom of religion. *'They proved to be," 
says Southey,(i) "excellent colonists, exhibiting their 



I. Southey, History of Brazil, Vol I p. 644. 



6 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

characteristic industry.'' Upon the settlement in 
Bahia and other parts of Braziil, many Portuguese 
there, he says, threw off the mask and joined their 
co-religionists. "The open joy," he further observes, 
"with which they celebrated their religious rites and 
ceremonies attracted too much notice. The public 
exercise of their religion excited the horror of the 
Catholics, and as the Dutch Protestants united with 
the Catholics, the government was constrained to de- 
clare that the religious liberty allowed in Holland did 
not extend to Brazil, and an edict was passed requir- 
ing the Jews to perform the^'r religious rites and ser- 
vices thereafter in private. " 

After 1642, the power of the Dutch in Brazil was 
gradually weakened. Its possession exhausted the 
resources of the West India Company, and as the 
government of Holland had made peace with Portu- 
gal and would not support the company in its efforts 
to retain their possession, they were compelled to 
withdraw theirtroops and evacuate the country. We 
find that the year when this took place, 1654, was the 
year of the first arrival of Jews in the city of New 
York, or, as it was then called New Amsterdam, and 
they came beyond any doubt from Bahia, abandon- 
ing Brazil when it was evacuated by their Dutch pro- 
tectors. Twenty-seven persons, men, women and 
children, (2) arrived here in the autumn of 1654, in 
tlie barque St. Catariua, of which Jacques de la 
Motthe was master, from Cape St. Anthony, or as the 
Portuguese call it, San Antonio; Cape St . Anthony 
being the projection of land which forms one side of 
the Bay of Bahia and occupies the space betw een the 
city and the ocean. Their departure appears to have 
been sudden, for upon their arrival here, their goods 



2. V. M. 1849 P- 383. Ed. i860, p. 615. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 7 

were sold by the masterof the vessel at public auction 
for the payment of their passage and the amount 
realized by the sale being insufficient, he applied to 
the Court of Burgomaster and Schepens for an order 
that one or two of them, as principals, be held as 
security for the payment of the balance in accordance 
with the contract made with him by which each per- 
son signing it had bound himself for the payment of 
the whole amount, and under which he had taken 
two of them, David Israel and Moses Ambrosius, as 
principal debtors. The Court accordingly ordered 
that they should be placed under civil arrest, in the 
custody of the provost marshal until they should 
have made satisfaction, that the captain should be 
answerable for their support whilst in custody, as 
security for which a certain proportion of the proceeds 
of the sale of the goods was directed to be left in the 
hands of the Secretary of the colony (3),but as no fur- 



3. The official account of the matter reads as follows: 
" Extraordinar)' Meeting, holden on 

Wednesday, the i6th September, 1654, 
Present, At the City Hall, 

The Heeren, 

Arent Van Halten, 
M. Krigier, 
Pieter Wolfertsen, 
Oloff Stevenson and 
Cornelis Van Tienhoven. 
Jacques de la Molthe.master of the Bark called St.Catrlna, Plaintiff 

contra 
David Israel and the other Jew^s, according to their signatures, Defts. 
Touching the ballance of the payment of the passage of 
the said Jews, for which each is bound in Solidum. Whereas, 
their goods sold thus far by vendue, do not amount to the payment 
of their obligation, it is, therefore, requested that one or two of the 
said Jews be taken as principle (principals ? ?) which, according 
to the aforesaid contract or obligation, cannot be refused. There- 
fore he hath taken David Israel and Moses Ambrosius as principal 
debtors for the remaining ballance, with request that the same ba 
placed in confinement until the account be paid. 



O JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

ther proceedings appear upon the records, the matter 
was doubtless arranged* and was probably nothing 
more than a dispute or misunderstanding between 
them and the captain as to whether they were bound 
to make good the deficiency, which was probably en- 
hanced by the forced sale of their effects at auction. 
From these proceedings I infer that they left Brazil 
hastily, taking with them what effects they could, the 
evacuation of the country by the Dutch leaving them 
without protection, aud the apprehension of persecu- 
tion leading them to seize the earliest opportunity to 
get within the friendly shelter of a Dutch colony. 
This event is one of interest, as it was in all proba- 
bility the first arrival of people of the Jewish persua- 
sion within the limits of what is now the United 
States (4) 

Whatever may have been the disposition of the 
inhabitants to the newcomers, the feeling of the 
Governor, Stuyvesant, was hostile. He was a man 
of strong will aud of strong prejudices, and shortly 
after their arrival, he wrote to the directors in Ams- 

The Court having weighed the petition of the plaintiff, and seen 
the obhgation wherein each is bound in Soliduvi for the full pay - 
inent, have consented to the plaintiff's request, to place the afore- 
said persons under civil arrest (namely with the Provost Marshal) 
until they shall have made satisfaction, provided, that he, La 
Motthe, shall previously answer for the board, which is fixed at 16 
stivers per diem for each prisoner; and is ordered,that for this pur- 
pose 40—50 guilders, proceeding from the goods sold, shall remain 
in the hands o( the Secretary, together with the expenses of this 
special court. Done in New Amsterdam in New Netherland.''^ 
Valentine's Manual for 1849, page 383, — EDITOR. 

4. This statement has been rendered rather doubtful, as it 
appears from a paper recently read before the American Jewish. 
Historical Society by Mr, Jacob H. Hollander of Baltimore orv 
•'John Lumbrozo,"that names that appear to be pronouncedly Jew- 
ish, are found in the Maryland Annals a number of years before 
this time. -Editor. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 9 

terdam, requesting that "none of the Jewish nation 
be permitted to infest New Netherland. " The an- 
swer was worthy of Holland — that his request "was 
inconsistent with reason and justice." (5) In fact, 
the company were favorable to the emigration of 
Jews to their newly acquired possession in America. 
Not only, as I have said, were the Jews of Amster- 
dam large stockholders of the company, (6) but sev- 
eral of that persuasion were in the Board of Direc- 
tors. In 1652, a tract of land of two leagues along 
the coast for every fifty families, and of four leagues 
for every hundred families, was granted in the island 
of Curacoa to Joseph Nunez de Fonseca, and others 
to found a colony of Jews in that island. Fonseca, 
who was afterwards a merchant in Curacoa, together 
with one Jan de Illan, who went out as a patroon, 
made the attempt, but it was not successful, there 



5. The instructions to Stuyvesant from the Directors of the 
Company were to this effect, as contained in the oflScial records: 

"26ih of April, 1655. 
"We would have liked to agree to your wishes and request, that 
the new territories should not be further invaded by people of the 
Jewish race, for we foresee from such immigration the same 
difficulties which you fear, but after having further weighed and 
considered the matter, we observe that it would be unreasonable 
and unfair, especially because of the considerable loss sustained 
by the Jews in the taking of Brazil, and also because of the large 
amount of capital which they have invested in shares of this com- 
pany. After many consultations we have decided and resolved 
upon a certain petition made by said Portuguse Jews, that they 
shall have permission to sail to and trade in New Netherland and 
to live and remain there, provided the poor among them shall not 
become a burden to the company, or to the community, but be 
supported by their own nation. You will govern yourself accord- 
ingly." — Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State 
of New York. Vol. XIV, p. 315.— Editor. 

6. See Introduction for further details as (0 this question. — 
Editor. 



V 



lO JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

being not more than twelve settlers on the tract. (7) 
Stuyvesaut's letter, therefore, instead of producing 
what he desired had a very opposite effect, for it 
stirred up the Jewish members of the Board of 
Directors to apply for distinct privileges for their 
coreligionists, and a special act was issued on the 
15th of July, 1655, expressly permitting Jews to 
trade to New Netherland, and to reside there 
on the simple condition only, that they should 
support their own poor; (8) a condition, it may 
be said, which they have strictly fulfilled ever since, 
for few, if any, of their denomination have ever 
in this city been supported at the public charge. 

Before the intelligence of this act could have 
reached New Netherland, an additional number of 
Jews arrived here directly from Holland, who 
probably came in anticipation of some such 
measure, or with the knowledge of the disposition of 
the company. (9) Their arrival and a circumstance* 
that occurred about the same time, had an unfavor- 
able effect upon Stuyvesant, and led him to adopt 



7. See Calendar of Historical Manuscripts. Edited by E. B« 
O'Callaghan. Dutch Manuscripts. Curacoa Papers, pp. 329-330, 
also Correspondence, p. 289 — Editor. 

8. I have been unable to find an order bearing this date; I be- 
lieve that the one already given (in Note 5) is the one in question, 
for it clearly contains the condition that the Jews shall provide 
for their own poor. — Editor. 

9. In a subsequent letter, dated June 14, 1656, and found in 
Note No. II, and also in a petition by Abraham de Luceria and 
others referred to in the text and to be found in Note 17, "orders 
of Feb. 15th, 1655, issued at the request of the Jewish or Portu- 
guese nation,'' are referred to. The official records extant do not 
contain any order of so early a date, but if, as seems likely to me, 
such orders were issued but have been lost since, the arrival of 
these Dutch Jews is easily accounted for, as being sanctioned by 
the company. Their arrival is referred to in the next note. — 
Editor. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA II 

energetic measures. On the ist of March, 1655, one 
Abraham De I^a Simon was brought before the Court 
of Burgomaster and Schepens, upon the complaint of 
the Schout or Sheriflf, for keeping open his store on 
Sunday, during the sermon, and selling at retail; the 
complainant demanding that he should be deprived 
of his trade, and condemned to pay a fine of six hun- 
dred guilders, at that time a very heavy sum to 
impose upon any one in the little colony. The 
accused, not understanding the nature of the charge 
brought against him, a copy of it in writing was 
delivered to him with instruction to appear upon the 
next court day. The Sheriff then informed the court 
that the Governor and Council had resolved that the 
Jews who had come in the preceding autumn as well 
as those that had recently arrived from Holland, 
must prepare to depart forthwith; that they would 
receive notice thereof, and the Sheriff asked if the 
court, which was also a council for the municipal gov- 
ernment of the city, had any objection' to make; 
whereupon, says the record, it was decided that the 
Governors resolution should take its course. (10) 



10, The following is the record of the hearing: 

'' Monday, ist March, 1655. 

In the City Hall 
Present, 

The Heeren 

AUart Anthony, 
Oloff Stevenson, 
Cornells Van Tienhoven, 
Johannes Verbrugge, 
Johannes Nevius, 
Johannes de Peyster, 
Jacob Striker and 

Van Vinge. 
Cornells Van Tienhoven, in quality of Sheriff of this City, PJaintiflf, 

vs, 
Abram De La Simon, a Jew, Defendant. 
Plaintiflf rendering his demand in writing, saying that he, De La 
Simon, hath kept his store open during the sermon, and sold by 



12 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

This notice, I presume, was given, as some left, for 
their number appears to have diminished. Others, 
however, remained, the Governor's course being 
arrested by the order received from Holland, (ii) 
Fortunately for those who departed, there was one 

retail, as proved by affidavit, concluding therefore, that Defendant 
shall be deprived of 'his trade and condemned in a fine of 600 
guilders. The charge having been read before Defendant, who 
not understanding the same, it was ordered that a copy be given 
Defendant to answer the same before next Court Day. The 
Heer Cornelis Van Tienhoven informed the Burgomaster and 
Schepens that the Director General and Supreme Council have 
resolved that the Jews who came here last year from the West 
Indies and now from Fatherland, must prepare to depart forthwith, 
and that they shall receive notice thereof, and asked if the Burgo- 
master and Schepens had anything to object thereto. It was de- 
cided, not; but that the resolution relating thereto should take its 
course." — Valentine's Manual for 18-I.9, P- 3^7- 

Before this order could be carried out, the orders from Holland 
to the contrary probably arrived, as will presently appear. The 
best proof of this is that the names of all of these early Jewish 
immigrants appear in the official records frequently and con- 
tinuously subsequent to the date of this order. 

I have ventured to add the following amusing incident, also 
bearing on the observance of the Sunday in early New York, 
which gives evidence of the changed condition of affairs a century 
and a half later: "A story is related of a respectable Jew at New 
York, who, through the malice of a powerful neighbor, was chosen 
constable, an office which the former endeavored to be excused 
from serving. The first Sunday of his entering upon his office, he 
seated himself on a stool before his door, and every servant that 
went by to fetch water, he took the pails from. He also inter- 
rupted, as far as in his power, every kind of work on the Sabbath 
day, and so annoyed his enemy and the rest of the neighborhood 
with the severity of his regulations, that they were glad to sub- 
stitute another in his place." — A Description of the City of New 
York, 1807-8, by John Lambert. Valentine's Manual for 1870, 
p. 864.— Editor. 

It. On the 13th of March. 1656, the Directors wrote a letter 
to Stuyvesant, containing the following: "The permission given to 
the Jews to go to New Netherland and enjoy the same privileges, as 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 1 3 

spot in America where universal toleration was re- 
cognized: the little colony founded by Roger Wil- 
liams in Rhode Island. A fugitive himself from 
persecution, Roger Williams had laid down as a 
fundamental principle of his commonwealth the 
sanctity of conscience; that the civil magistrate 
should restrain crime but not control opinions; that 
he should punish guilt but never violate the freedom 
of the soul — a doctrine, says Bancroft, which was an 
entire reformation of theological jurisprudence, and 
gave equal protection to every form of religious faith. 
In 1653, two years before the arrival of these Jewish 
emigrants, the colony of Rhode Island enacted that 

they have here (in Amsterdam), has been granted only as far as 
civil and political rights are concerned, without giving the said 
Jews a claim to the privilege of exercising their religion in a syna- 
gogue or a gathering; so long, therefore, as you receive no request 
for granting them this liberty of religious exercise, your considera- 
tions and anxiety about this matter aie premature, and when later 
something shall be said about it, you can do no better than to refer 
them'to us, and await the necessary order. Your next remark 
concerning trade does not as yet divert us from our resolution." 

Again, on the 14th of June, 1656, they wrote: "We have seen 
and heard with displeasure, that against our orders of the 15th day 
of February, 1655, issued at the request of the Jewish or Portu- 
guese nation, you have forbidden them to trade to Fort Orange 
and the South River, also the purchase of real estate, which is 
granted to them without difficulty here in this country, and we 
wish it had not been done, and that you had obeyed our orders, 
which you must always execute punctually and with more respect. 
Jews or Portuguese people, however, shall not be employed in any 
public service (to which they are neither admitted in this city), nor 
allowed to have open retail shops, but they may quietly and peace- 
fully carry on their business as beforesaid and exercise in all quiet- 
ness their religion within their houses, for which end they must 
without doubt endeavor to build their houses close together in a 
convenient place on one or the other side of New Amsterdam — at 
their choice— as they have done here.'' — Documents Relating to 
the Colonial History of the State of New York. Vol. XIV, pp. 
34^1 351 respectively. — Editor 



14 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

"all men of whatever nation soever they may be, that 
shall be received inhabitants of any of the towns, shall 
have the same privileges as Englishmen, any law to 
the contrary notwithstanding," which was both a 
general act of naturalization to all who came within 
that colony, as well as a recognition of the privilege 
of all to the equal enjoyment of civil rights. 

It is my impression that those who departed went 
to Rhode Island. The Rhode Island historians say 
(iia) that the Jews came to Newport, R. I., as early 
as 1657; that they were of Dutch extraction; that 
they came from the island of Curacoa; that they were 
not possessed of the wealth, intelligence or enter- 
prise which so eminently distinguished those who 
settled in Newport afterwards, and in the very year 
mentioned by these historians, 1657, an event occur- 
red in Rhode Island, which pointed it out as the 
place for all who sought the sacred enjoyment of civil 
and religious liberty. 

The persecuted Quakers had full refuge there, and 
the commissioners of the United Colonies remon- 
strated with the President of that colony for protect- 
ing this troublesome sect. The answeir given to this 
remonstrance was, that "persecution only tended to 
increase sects," and that they had no law in Rhode 
Island "for preventing any one from declaring by 
words their mind or understanding concerning the 
ways or the things of God," one of the noblest 
expositions ever given of religious freedom. From 
these circumstances and the proximity of Rhode 
Island, I infer that some of the Jewish emigrants left 
New Amsterdam and settled in Newport, between 
the years 1655 and 1657, and that they were after- 
wards joined by others who came directly from Cura- 



II a. Peterson's History, of R. I,, p. 181. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I5 

coa. There were at that time vessels trading be- 
tween Curacoa and New Amsterdam, and as the 
scheme for a Jewish colony at the former place had, 
after two years of time, proved abortive, and the 
affairs of the island were otherwise not prosperous, 
the probability is that some of the Jews, who had 
gone out there, left, and coming as they naturally 
would on the return passage to New Amsterdam, and 
being there informed of the advantages presented by 
Rhode Island, that they joined their coreligionists in 
that colony, and with those previously there, became 
the nucleus of the wealthy and influential Jewish 
community, which continued to expand and flourish 
in Newport until some time after the American 
revolution. 

Of the Jews who remained in New York, then 
called New Amsterdam, the most prominent or lead- 
ing man appears to have been Abraham D'Lucena, 
as his name generally appears first in the several 
applications made in behalf of himself and his 
brethren to Stuyvesant's government. In July, 1655, ^ 

he applied, with several others, for a burying ground, 
but the request was rudely refused, the reply being, 
"that there was no need for it yet." (12) Death, 
however, says O'Callaghan, soon removed this 
excuse, and on the 14th of July, 1656, a lot was 
granted to them on the outside of the city "for a 
place of interment. " The exact place outside the 
city, where the first burial place of the Jewish race 
in North America was, has not been positively ascer- 
tained. It is my impression, for reasons that will be 



12. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts. Edited by E. B, 
O'Callaghan. Dutch Manuscripts, Council Minutes, p. 150. 

Burial ground granted, Feb. 22d, 1656. Do. p. 160, O'Callag- 
han's date seems erroneous. — Editor. 



1 6 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

stated hereafter, that it was on the side of a ridge of 
elevated ground near the southerly side of the pres- 
ent site of Oliver Street, west of Madison and near 
Henry Street. 

At the period 1655, the position of the city was 
perilous. It was exposed to attacks from Spanish 
cruisers and pirates, and to assaults from the Indians, 
who had been badly treated by the Dutch governors, 
and were enemies. The eucroachments of the Eng- 
lish, moreover, in Long Island and Westchester, was 
the subject of constant anxiety, England never hav- 
ing conceded the right of the Dutch to settle New 
Netherland, and there was an apprehension of what 
afterwards occurred, the capture of the place by the 
English. This being the state of things, all the male 
inhabitants, capable of bearing arms, were enrolled 
in what was called the Burgher Guard, for the pro- 
tection and defence of the city, and a watch was 
kept up night and day with the steadiness and vigil- 
ance of a beleaguered town. A few mouths after the 
arrival of these Jewish emigrants, the question arose 
whether the adult males among them should be 
incorporated in the Burgher Guard ; the officer of the 
guard submitting the question to the Governor and 
Council. It was duly deliberated upon and an ordi- 
nance was passed which, after reciting the unwilling- 
ness "of the mass of the citizens" to be fellow-soldiers 
"of the aforesaid nation,'' or watch in the same guard- 
hDuse, and the fact that the Jews in Holland did not 
serve in the trainbands of the cities, but paid a com- 
pensation for their exemption therefrom, declared 
that they should be exempt from this military ser- 
vice, and that for such exemption each male person 
between the ages of 16 and 60 should pay a monthly 
contribution of sixty-five stivers. (13) 

13. Resolution to exempt the Jews from military service, 28th 
of August, (1655): 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 17 

This was not absolute, and, accordingly, two of 
them, Jacob Barsimson and Asser Levy, petitioned 
to be allowed to stand guard like the other burghers, 
or to be relieved from the tax imposed upon their 
nation, which was refused by the Governor and 
Council with the curt addition, that "they might go 
elsewhere if they liked." (14) Neither of them, how- 



\j 



The Captains and officers of the trainbands of this city having 
asked the Director General and Council, whether the Jewish people, 
who reside in this city, should also train and mount guard with 
the citizens' bands, this was taken in consideration and deliberated 
upon: first the disgust and unwillingness of these trainbands to be 
fellow-soldiers with the aforesaid nation and to be on guard with 
them in the same guard house, and on the ether side, that the said 
nation was not admitted or counted among the citizens, as regards 
trainbands or common citizens' guards, neither in the illustrious City 
of Amsterdam nor (to our knowledge) in any city in Netherland; but 
in order that the said nation may honestly be taxed for their freedom \^' 

in that respect, it is directed by the Director General and Council 
to prevent further discontent, that the aforesaid nation shall, 
according to the usages of the renowned City of Amsterdam, 
remain exempt from the general training and guard duty, on con- 
dition that each male person over 16 and under 60 years contribute 
for the aforesaid freedom towards the relief of the general muni- 
cipal taxes 65 stivers [$1.30] every month, and the military council 
of the citizens is hereby authorized and charged to carry this into 
effect until our further orders, and to collect pursuant to the above, 
the aforesaid contribution once in every month, and in case of 
refusal, to collect it by legal process. Thus done in Council at 
Fort Amsterdam, on the day as above. 
(It was signed]: 

P. Stuyvesant, 
Nicasius De Sille, 
Cornelis Van Tienhoven. 

(Vol. XII, p. 96, Documents Relating to Colonial History, 
etc.) — Editor 

14. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts. Do. Council Minutes, 
p. 151. November 5, 1655. 

Asser Levy's name appears more frequently, probably, than that 
of any other Jewish settler of this time, in the official records. He 



I 



l8 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

ever, had any such disposition, for Barsimson's name 
appears subsequently as a litigant in the courts, and 
Asser Levy, who was a butcher, became afterwards 
a prominent man in the colony, and was distin- 
guished from the beginning for the pertinacity with 
which he insisted upon the rights of himself and his 
brethren. 

In December of the same year, 1655, one of their 
number, Salvator D'Andrada, who was also a mer- 
chant, purchased at auction a house and lot in the 
city, but when he came to pay the purchase money, 
an objection was raised as to his right to acquire and 
hold real estate. He accordingly petitioned the 
Governor and council, praying that he might be 
allowed to take a deed, being ready to pay the pur- 
chase money. His application was refused for, says 
the record, "pregnant reasons." The owner then 
petitioned that he might be allowed to convey his 
house and lot to D'Andrada, or, if not that the Gov- 
ernor and council would take it in virtue of their 
right of pre-emption, and pay the price. But this 
was also refused, the sale was declared void and the 
property was afterwards sold to another person. (15) 

Abraham D'lvucena, then, together with four of 
his brethren, presented March 14th, 1656, a formal 
petition, setting forth that they and their coieligion- 
ists were assessed the same as other citizens, and 



seems to have been extremely active and to have held even certain 
public offices. A long article of interest can be written about him 
alone. — Editor. 

15. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts do, pp. 156, 1 57. 

By the order of the 14th of June, 1656, from the Directors to 
Stuyvesant (see Note 1 1), the Jews were expressly given permis- 
sion to own real estate, and Stuyvesant was censured for having 
prevented them from so doing. Subsequently to this, they seem 
to have had no difficulties about this matter. — Editor, 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I9 

asking that they should have in, common with others 
the same right to trade and to hold real estate, 
according to the act of the Amsterdam directors of 
February 15th, 1655. (^^) T^hey were not only as- 
sessed with the other tax-paying inhabitants, but, 
as appears from the records, very heavily, at least 
those mentioned in the petition. In the preceding 
year, 1655, ^ ^^^ "^^^ imposed to defray the cost of 
erecting the outer fence, or city wall, from which 
the present Wall Street takes it name. For this these 
five petitioners were assessed each 1,000 florins, being 
the same amount imposed upon the wealthiest of the 
citizens, and two-thirds of the amount assessed upon 
the Governor, as the representative of the company, 
showing that they were either among the wealthiest 
of the inhabitants, or were very unequally taxed. 

Abm. D'Lucena, then and for many years after- 
wards a merchant in the city, together with several 
of his brethren, put goods on board a ship bound for 
the Delaware river, claiming that under the Act of 
the Amsterdam Chamber of Feb. 15th, 1655, they 
had a general right to trade, and on the 29th of 
November, 1655, they petitioned the Governor that 
they might have the right to trade to the Delaware, 



16. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts do. p. 162. The names 
of the petitioners were: Abraham de Lucena, Jacob Cohen 
Henricque, Salvator Dandrada, Joseph D'Ccster and David Frera, 
The Directors and Council .answered that they awaited further 
instructions from Holland, which were received soon after in the 
letter of 14th June, 1656, mentioned in the last note and found in 
Note II. 

The assessment list may be found in Valentine's History of the 
City of New York, pp. 315-8. It includes the following names 
and amounts in currency of the present day: Abraham La Cuya, 
(Lucena?), $40; Joseph d'Costar, $40; David Frera, $40; Fusilador 
Dandrade, $40; Jacob .Cowyn, $40; Jacob Barsimson, $3.— 
Editor. 



20 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

(the Southriver) and to Albany, (Fort Orange). 
The privilege to trade as requested was refused, 
but they were allowed to forward the gocds they had 
shipped, with the understanding, however, that it 
was not to be taken as a precedent and their general 
application was referred "to Fatherland," that is, to 
the Directors of the West India Company, or the por- 
tion of them known as the Amsterdam Chamber (17). 

17. This petition is found below, as well as an account of the 
deliberations upon it: 

"To the Honorable Worshipful Director General and Council of 
New Netherlands show with due reverence, (name) for themselves 
and in the name of others of the Jewish nation, residing in that 
city, that under date of the 15th of February, 1655, they, the peti- 
tioners, have from the Honorable Lords Directors of the Incorpo- 
rated West India Company, Masters and Patrons of the Province, 
received permission and consent to travel, reside and trade here 
like the other inhabitants and enj:)y the same liberties, which is 
proved by the document here annexed. They request therefore 
respectfully, that your Noble Worships will not prevent or hinder 
them herein but will allow and consent that, pursuant to their 
permit, they may, with other inhabitants of this Province, travel to 
and trade on the South River of New Netherland, at Fort Orange 
and other places, situate within the jurisdiction of this Government 
of New Netherland. So doing etc., they shall remain your Ncble 
Worships' 

humble servants, 
Signed, Abraham de Lucena, 

Salvator Dandrada, 
Jacob Coen.'' 

After the foregoing petition had been read, at the meeting of 
the Director General and Council, it was resolved, that each of 
the members of the Council should give his opinion as to what 
answer is to be made: 

Opinion of the Honorable Director General, Petrus Stuyvesant: 

•To answer, that the petition is 10 be denied fur weighty reasons." 
Opinion of the Honorable Nicasius de Sille: 

He says, that "he does not like to act herein contrary to the 
orders of the Lords Directors, but that at present, as they have put 
on board ship goods for the Southriver, permission might be 
given to them, and further orders in answer to the last letter sent to 
the Lords Directors, should be awaited." 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 21 

The constant hostility of Stuyvesant, and his per- 
sistent efforts to deprive them of what they would 
have enjoyed in Holland, was in itself a cause for 
inducing others to remove to Rhode Island, and no 
doubt did contribute to increase the numbers of those 
who settled in Newport. Those who remained 
undoubtedly communicated to their influential 
brethren in Holland, the treatment they continued 
to receive at the hands of Stuyvesant. For on the 
13th of March, 1656, the Directors wrote to Stuyve- 
sant, that the consent given that they might go to 
New Netherland and enjoy there "the same liberty 
their nation enjoyed in Holland included all the civil 



Opinion of the Honorable Lamontagne. 

"To answer, that for weighty reasons, the petition is denied.'' 
Opinion of the Honorable Cornells van Tienhoven, written by 
himself: 

"Cornells van Tienhoven is of opinion under correction, that to 
grant the petition of the Jews for permission to go to the South- 
river and Fort Orange, although the noble Lords Directors had 
allowed this nation to live and trade in New Netherland, would 
nevertheless be very injurious to the community and population of 
the said places, and therefore the petition must be denied for the 
coming winter, and ample report be made thereon to the Lords 
Directors, also that for this time a young man of that nation may 
be allowed to go to the Southriver with some goods, without 
thereby establishing a precedent.'' 

" Petition of Abraham de Lucena and other Jews for permission 
to trade on the South River, etc.," Documents relating to Colonial 
History, XII. pp. 117, 118, 29th November. 1655. 

This last opinion appears to have been adopted, for an order was 
issued that "for weighty reasons is the request expressed in general 
terms declined, but as we are informed the suppliants have 
embarked already some goods thither.so are they now permitted to 
send two persons towards Southriver to trade with them, and when 
they shall have disposed of their goods, then to return hither." — 
Albany Records, Vol. X., p. 178, quoted in Hazard's Annals of Pa 
p. 205. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts, etc., p. 156. — Editor. 



22 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

and religious privileges," and wheu the Amsterdam 
Chamber were advised of the Governor's refusal to 
allow them to trade, the Chamber, June 14th, 1656, 
expressed its dissatisfaction by letter in very strong 
terms, in these words: "We have observed with 
displeasure that, contrary to our concessions, granted 
on the 15th of February, 1655, to the Jeivs or 
Portuguese nation, you have forbidden them to 
trade to Fort Orange (18), and to the South - 
river (19), or to purchase real estate which is here 
allowed without any difficulty," and then, after 
declaring their wish, that the Governor ought more 
respectfully to follow their orders and obey them ac- 
cording'to their tenor, the letter added: "The Jews 



18, Shortly after this, on December 28th. 1655, we find Isaac 
Israel and Benjamin Cardoso among the traders on the Delaware 
with Vice-Director Jean Paul Jacquet. In spite of the terms of the 
order in the note above, or more properly in consequence of the 
letter from the Directors, no difficulties seem to have been placed 
in the way of Jews settling permanently here. In 1663, we find 
that Israel was a member of the High Council of the Director of 
the D. W. I. Co's. colony on the South River (Delaware River). 
In 1680, wa find a Mr. Isaack and Richard Levey among the 
responsible house-keepers near the Delaware River. These facts 
are of unusual interest, because they indicate that Jews settled in 
the present State of Delaware at New Castle and elsewhere at such 
an early date. My authorities are given at some length in Appendix 
I.— Editor. 

19. Jews seemed to have availed themselves of permission to 
trade at Fort Orange, TAlbany) at a very early date. This is 
evidenced by references to Asser Levy engaging in purchases of 
merchandise and real estate in Albany in 1661. See "Early Records 
of the City and County of Albany'', by J. Pearson, pp. 297, 308 
309, 362. 371, 372, 376, 381; as appears from the text, the family of 
Asser Levy, after his death, settled on Long Island, making 
another early Jewish settlement. 

In August, 1678, we also find Jacob Lucena petitioning for a pass 
to go to Albany and Esopus to trade. — Calendar of Historical 
manuscripts. — Editor. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 23 

or Portuguese uationare not, however, to be at liberty 
to exercise any handicraft or to keep any open retail 
store, which they cannot do in this city. But they 
shall pursue peaceably and quietly their cominerce 
as aforesaid, and be at liberty to exercise their religi- 
ous worship in all quietness within their houses." 

After the letter was received, Asser Levy applied 
to the Court of Burgomaster and Schepens to admit 
him to the right of citizenship, and exhibited his 
certificate to the Court to show that he had been a 
burgher in Amsterdam; but his request was not com- 
plied with. Salvator D'Andrada, and others also 
made a similar application (20) and were refused, 
whereupon they brought the matter before the 
Governor and Council, and as the directions from 
Holland were controlling, an order was made April 
2ist, 1657, tl^^t the Burgomaster should admit them 
to that privilege. Here the struggle virtually ended, 
and they were no longer troubled during the Dutch 
rule. The names of these early emigrants, so far as 
they can now be gathered from the records, are as 
follows: Abraham D'Lucena, David Israel, Moses / 

Ambrosius, Abraham De L,a Simon, Salvator D'An- 
drada, Joseph Da Costa, David Frera, Jacob Barsim- 
son, Jacob C. Henricque, or as it was sometimes 
written, Jacob Cohen, Isaac Mesa, and Asser Levy, 
nearly all of whom would seem from the names to 
have been of Portuguese or Spanish origin. 

Abraham D'Lucena is the person to whom I 
Teferred in the beginning in connection with an act 
of charity. A vessel, purporting to be a Spanish 
privateer, but commanded by a Dutchman, captured 
a Spanish vessel upon the ocean, and brought the 

20. The Market Book, p. 50. Calendar of Historical Manu- 
scripts, etc., p. 184. 



24 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

cargo, consisting of twenty-seven negroes and merch- 
andise, to New Amsterdam, where he disposed of 
the negroes among the inhabitants in exchange for 
other commodities. The owner of the negroes 
applied to Holland for restitution, and the Dutch 
government directed the authorities in New 
Amsterdam, to see that justice was done to him. He 
accordingly came out to the colony but could get no 
satisfaction, and through his long waiting having 
exhausted his means, and been reduced to a state of 
great destitution, he was supported for some time by 
the authorities, as he complained, in a very insuffici- 
ent manner, and Lucena paid liis passage to enable 
him to return to Knrope. (21) A descendant of 
Lucena, was living in 1759, and hisson, as I presume 
from the name, Abraham D'lvUcena, was the second 
Jewish minister or preacher in the first synagogue 
erected in this city. 

The citv was captured by the English in 1664, and 
its name changed to New York. For half a century 
afterwards, very little is to be found respecting the 
Jewish residents. Their increase in numbers was 
very moderate, for the reason probably that few of 
their persuasion emigrated to the colony, after the 
government passed into the hands of the English. In 
1683, an act was passed by the Colonial Assembly for 
the naturalization of foreigners; but it offered no 
advantage to them as it was limited to those profess- 
ing Christianity. (22). 

In 1685, Saul Brown, a merchant who had come 
from Newport and settled in New York, complained 
to Governor Dongan, by petition, that he had been 

21. The date of this incident is 1657. See Documents relating 
to Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol. II., p. 39. — 
Editor. 

22. Parker's Laws of New York, 112. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 25 

interfered with in his trade under an existing muni- 
cipal regulation. The Governor referred Brown's 
petition to the Mayor and Common Council, who 
declared that no Jew could sell by retail in the city, 
but might by wholesale, if the Governor thought 
fit to permit it. (23). There was a previous regula- 
tion that none but burghers or freemen could sell by 
retail, and this was equivalent to holding that no Jew 
could become a burgher or freeman of the city. The 
privilege to sell by wholesale, however, must have 
been conceded to Brown, for he was for many years 
afterwards a prominent merchant. 

In 1683, a Charter of L-iberties and Privileges was 
adopted by the colonial legislature, which among 
other provisions, declared that "no one should be 
molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question 
for his religious opinions, ^\iQ> professed faith in God, 
by Jesus Christ^'''' but that all such persons should 
"at all times freely have and enjoy their judgments 
and consciences in matters of religion throughout the 
province,'' which was extending religious freedom to 
all but Jews. This Charter was regarded as a great 
public triumph, aud the inhabitants of the city were 
summoned by sound of trumpet to assemble and hear 
it publicly read in front of the City Hall, in presence 
of all the city and colonial authorities. 

Two years afterwards, 1685, the Jewish residents, 
who must have heard a great deal about the religious 
freedom secured by this charter, petitioned Governor 
Dongan "for liberty to exercise their religion," 
probably unaware that the provision in the charter 
did not apply to them, or, perhaps, supposing that 
the Governor had power independent of this pro- 



23. 2 Dunlop, Appendix cxxxiv , Booth's History of New York, 
p. 198, 2 Brod.,p, 426. 



26 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

vincial statute. In the formal written instructions 
of James, Duke of York, afterwards James 11. , to 
Governor Audros, who had succeeded Dongan, the 
Governor was required "to permit all persons of what 
religion soever, quietly to inhabit within the govern- 
ment, and to give no disturbance or disquiet whatso- 
ever for or b}' reason of their differing in matters of 
religion." But this important provision was left out 
in the written instructions to Governor Dongan, 
which may have been the reason for bis adopting the 
course which he did, which was to refer the petition 
to the Mayor and Common Council of New York, by 
whom it was considered, and their decision is 
recorded in these words: "that no public worship is 
tolerated by act of assembly, but to those that profess 
faith in Christ, and therefore the Jew's worship not 
to be allowed." 

When James, however, became king, a new copy 
of instructions was, in 1686, sent out to Dongan, in 
which this important promise was re-inserted, and 
they may have led to what afterwards took place, 
for it is certain that the Jews had a synagogue 
as early as 1695 and may have it in 1691, for La 
Motthe Cadillac, in his account of New York in 
1691, enumerates the Jews as one of the sects and 
then says that each sect had its church and free- 
dom of religion. (24). Dongan, who was one of the 
best Governors the colony ever had, was a very 
liberal-minded man, and it is very probable that he 
may, when his new instructions came out with this 
clause restored, have granted to the Jewish residents 
this privilege they asked, or it may, in consequence 
of the restoration of the particular clause, have been 
conceded during the temporary rule of Leisler, or by 



24 Colonial Documents, ix., 549. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 2 7 

the succeeding Governors, Sloughter or Fletcher. 

(25)- 

The synagogue referred to, which I suppose to have 
been the first upon the Continent of North America, 
was on the south side of the present Beaver Street, 
in the middle of the block, between Broadway and 
Broad Street. Its existence in 1695 and its location 
are established by a. description of New York, written 
by the Rev. John Miller, Chaplain to the English 
g-arrison, to which description he affixed a plan or 
map of the city, in which the position of the public 
buildings and especially all the religious edifices, is 
carefully indicated as they existed in 1695. 

In the text of the work. Miller gave a tabular state- 
ment of the different religious denominations, the 
number of each, and the name of the minister; from 
which it appears that the Jewish congregation con- 
sisted of twenty families and the name of the minis- 
ter was Saul Brown. This was the merchant already 
referred to, who in 1685 was allowed the burgher 
privileges and, as he was carrying on business in 1685 
as a merchant, and for several years afterwards, it is 
presumed that he was not a regular minister, but 
what is known in Jewish congregations as a reader. 
The building used as a synagogue must, from the 
indications upon the map, have been a small one. 



25, In the volume for 1885 of the New York Historical Society 
Collections, the names of two Jews, Isaac Henriquez and Simon 
Bonan, appear on the rolls of Freemen, in 1687-8 and others subse- 
quently, so that Dongan, or one of his immediate successors, 
appears to have swept away this discrimination against the Jews, 
of which Samuel Brown complained. Besides in 1683, permission 
had been granted to Joseph Bueno and others, whom we know to 
have been Jewish, " to trade and traffic within the city of New 
York,''— Calendar of Historical Manuscripts — Eng. Man. p. 154. — 
Editor. 



28 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

It was possibly nothing more than an ordinary house, 
converted into a place for public worship, as was the 
case at the time in respect to the religious edifices of 
the several other of the smaller denominations. ^It 
is represented on the map as corresponding with the 
building in the next street to it, used by the French 
Protestants, which was a very humble edifice. Saul 
Brown was succeeded by Abraham D'Lucena. Lucena 
was also a merchant. It appears, however, that in 
1710, he petitioned Governor Hunter, to be exempted, 
as minister for the Jews, from all offices and duties* 
civil and military (26). I cannot say whether this 
application was granted or not, but he carried on 
business afterwards as a merchant, having been con- 
cerned with others in furnishing provisions for the 
expedition against Canada in 1711. (27). 

When lyord Bellamont was Governor in 1698, he had 
arrayed against him the leading merchants in con- 
sequence of his efforts to put down the piracy con- 
nived at by his predecessors, and was also opposed 
by the aristocratic party, because he had disapproved 
of their course in the trial and execution of Leisler. 
The aristocratic and mercantile class combined 
together, so as to deprive him oi the pecuniary means 
necessary to carry on his government, and so extensive 
and powerful was this combination, that he writes in 
1700 to the Lords of Trade: "Were it not for one 
Dutch merchant and two or three Jews that have let 
me have money, I should have been undone." (28). 

In the beginning of this century, 1700, a very 
profitable commerce was carried on between New 

26. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts. English Manuscripts, 
p. 373. This petition is reprinted in Documental y History of the 
State of New York. Vol. HI., p. 434. 

27. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts. Eng. MSS., p. 391. 

28. Colonial Documents, iv., p. 720. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 29 

York and the West Indies, in which several of the 
Jewish merchants were engaged, and there being 
great scarcity in Europe about the close of the French 
war, wheat was exported from New York to lyisbon. 
Though this trade was of short duration it proved 
exceedingly profitable to those engaged in it, so that 
several^of them were enabled to purchase estates. (29). 
Two of the merchants engaged in this traffic to Lyisbon 
were Abraham D'Lucena and Louis Oomez, and as 
they were afterward two of the most affluent of the 
Jewish residents, it may be supposed that they were 
among the fortunate in this Lisbon trade, which 
could not be raaiutained when the price of wheat fell 
in Europe, as the vessels obtained no cargos upon 
their return voyage to New York. 

Though this direct trade between New York and 
Portugal was, as I have said, of short duration, it 
was attended by an increase in the Jewish population 
both in New York and Newport, and I infer, that the 
vessels engaged in it brought Jewish passengers upon 
the return voyage, some of whom remained in New 
York whilst others settled in Newport. I infer this, as 
new names undoubtedly of Spanish or Portuguese 
origin appear about this period for the first time 
among the Jewish residents. (30). 

29, Valentine's Manual, 1852. 

30. In this connection, it is interesting to notice that even at 
this early period the various nationalities of Europe seem to have 
been pretty well represented among the Jewish inhabitants of 
New York City. Some evidence of this fact is found in the follow- 
ing passage from a letter which appears in the New York 
Historical Society Collections for 1880, p. 342. It appears that one 
of the clergy of the city, the Rev. John Sharpe, proposed that a 
School Library and Chapel be erected in New York City, in 1712-3. 
Some of the advantages which the city offered for that purpose are 
pointed by him as follows: "It is possible also to learn Hebrew 
here as well as in Europe, there being a synagogue of Jews, and 



3© JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

One of the principal personages in the Jewish com- 
munity at this period was Louis Gomez, who emi- 
grated from England to New York about thp 
commencement of this century and died in 1730. He 
had five sons: Mordecai, Daniel, David, Isaac and 
Benjamin. Mordecai was associated with his father 
in mercantile business and became the head of the 
house upon his father's death. He was, until his 
death in 1750, one of the principal merchants of New- 
York, and the accession of this Gomez family, who 
were men of intelligence and of high character, proved 
a very material addition to the little Jewish commu- 
nity, of which they were for many years the recognized 
head. (31). 

The Synagogue in Beaver Street was now found 
to be too small or of too humble a character for a 
denomination, who, though limited in numbers, were 
as a body both wealthy and influential. (32). It was 



many ingenious men of that nation from Poland, Hungary, 
Germany, etc." — Editor. 

31. The above remarks are based on numerous references 'to 
the family in the colonial annals. These and many other similar 
statements show how large and varied the commercial relations of 
the Jews of New York were at this ear!y period. There were 
vessels owned wholly or in part by Jews plying between New York 
and various points in South America and the West Indies, Europe, 
Asia and even Africa. When these papers and other data, including 
commissions of vessels, clearance papers, bills of lading, etc, have 
been collected (many of the.n are in the Brodhead collection in 
Albany and need merely be copied and translated), we will have 
ample material for an elaborate article on the commerce of the 
Jews of New York from 1655 to the Revolution, and I believe such 
an article will not only awaken interest but also great surprise, 
because of the magnitude of the- commerce in question. My own 
investigations, chiefly in connection with the Documents Relating to 
the Colonial History of New York, amply warrant these assertions. 
— Editor. 

32. The text has contained several references to this congre- 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA i 3 1 

accordingly given up in about 1728, and a new 
synagogue was erected in a different part of the city. 
This was what was afterwards known as the Mill 
Street Synagogue, and as the street where it stood 
has now disappeared in consequence of the changes 
made in that part of the city after the fire of 1855, it 
may be of interest to give some account of the locality 
of this synagogue, which for more than a century was 
the only one in New York. 

Mill Street was a small narrow street, running out 
of Broad Street in a north-easterly direction for a 
short distance, and then suddenly terminating in a 
narrow lane which ran south into 'Stone Street. 
The part extending from Broad Street was about or 

gation in the preceding pages. There seems to be but scanty data 
about its history prior to the beginning of the Eighteenth century. 
The following will somewhat supplement Judge Daly's remarks. It 
is based on a communication to the Historical Magazine, Vol, I., 
p. 366, of Series III., from Rev. Dr. A. Fischell. then a colleague 
of Rabbi Raphall, of this city: The first minutes of this congrega- 
tion are in Spanish, beginning in 1729, and have references to certain 
wholesome rules and regulations made about the year 1706, by the 
Elders of the Congregation "to preserve peace, tranquility and good 
government among them and those after them," The following 
names are affixed; 

Moses Gomez, Daniel Gomez, Benjamin Mendes Pacheco, 
Abraham Riviero, Mordecai Gomez, Nathan Levy. Isaac d'Medena, 
Joseph Nunez, Doctor Nunez. D. Costa, Abraham Franks, Baruch 
Juda, Jacob Franks, and Moses Gomez, Jr. Ten years later the 
following names were added: J. Myers Cohen, David Gomez, J. 
R. Rodriguez, Judah Hays, Judah Mears and Solomon Hays. 

The list of names of early Jewish residents given thus far is not 
by any means to be considered complete. A number of families 
which arrived here in the seventeenth century seem to have either 
migrated or become extinct by this time. (1729). There are 
references to a number of others not yet mentioned, in my posses- 
sion, but as a couple of them are doubtful and the list cannot 
be deemed complete, I shall dismiss the subject with this explana- 
tion.— Editor. 



32 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

very near the line of the present South William 
Street, and the little lane or alley v/here it ended, 
still remains, running from South William to Stone 
Street. It was one of the most secluded and quiet 
streets in the city, and so narrow at either entrance 
that it might have been passed without recognizing 
it as a thoroughfare. During the Dutch occupation 
it was known as the Sluyk Steegie, or miry lane, 
from the fact that the drainage of the hilly or 
elevated land which then extended from Hanover 
Square to near the corner of Exchange Place and. 
Broad Street, ran into this little valley or open 
way, which was difficult of passage and had but a 
few straggling houses of a very humble character. 
At the upper end of it from Broad Street, there was 
a copious spring of fresh water which at an early 
period of the settlement supplied a tannery, and near 
this tannery was a horse-mill for grinding the bark, 
from which the locality took its name. At a later 
period this spring turned a water-mill, from which 
there was a cartway from Broad Street, long known 
as Mill Iyane,whilst from the rear of the mill the short 
narrow lane, which is still existing, ran into Stone 
Street, then one of the principal streets of the cit}'. 
In 1663, Asser Levy, previously mentioned as one of 
the first emigrants, purchased two lots in the part 
known as Mill Lane, alongside of a house and lot 
belonging to another Jewish resident, Daniel Jog- 
himsen (probably Joachimsen), the lots bought by 
Levy being located, as I infer, from the deed, in about 
the place where the second or Mill Street Synagogue 
was built, and very near the spring which supplied 
the water-mill referred to. Grant Thorburn, when 
he came to New York in 1794, conversed with a very 
old man who remembered the mill, the wheel of 
which was turned by the water from the spring, and he, 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 33 

Thorburu, adds, that the reason assigned for the Jews 
-erecting their synagogue in this place, was "because 
of its vicinity to the waters of the spring- water being 
much used upon their day of purification,'' (33) and 
Watson records that he heard from the Phillips 
family that, when the Jews first held their worship 
in Mill Street, "they had a living spring in which 
they were accustomed to perform their ablutions and 
cleansings according to the rites of their religion (34). 

Asser Levy, who purchased this property in Mill 
Street, was one of the sworn butchers of this city, 
•who some years afterwards became the proprietor of 
a celebrated tavern just within the water gate at the 
bottom of Wall Street, on the outside of which gate he 
had a slaughter-house, which he had been permitted 
to erect by the authorities, as a place for slaughtering 
•cattle for the general use of all persons in the city. 
He died in 1682, when his family removed to Long 
Island. (35). He was an active, energetic man, 
who had acquired considerable property, and the laud, 
upon which the Mill Street Synagogue was built 
about 1728, was probably obtained from his heirs, 
either by gift or purchase. 

The new synagogue received the name of Shearith 
Israel, Remna7tt of Israel. It was a small stone struc- 
ture, very plain without, but very neat within. (36). 
It was separated from the street by a wooden paling, 
having a gate at the eastern end, and the entrance to 
the synagogue was in the rear. (37). 

Nearly three quarters of an century had now elapsed 



33. Reminiscences of Grant Thorburn, p. 212, N. J. 1845. 

34. Dunlap's history of New York, p. 484. 

35. De Voe's Market Book. pp. 45, 46, 54. 55. 

36. Smith's History of New York. 

37. There is a drawing of. the building upon the map made 
hy David Grim of the city, as it existed in 1746. 



34 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

since the arrival of the first and the emigrants burial 
ground being full, measures were taken contempo- 
raneous with the erection of this synagogue, for pro- 
curing a new burial place. It appears by the records 
that on the 26th of July, 1727, a conveyance was made 
to Louis Gomez, trustee, by Isaac Levy, Asher 
Nathan Levy, Isaac Levy, Judah Mears and Jacob 
Franks, executors of Moses Levy, of two lots of 
ground in "the street commonly known as the Gold 
Street", marked No. 84 and 85 in the map of the 
division of the lands of William Beekman, for the 
consideration of ;^46, 13s. money, "raised" in the 
language of the deed, "by voluntary subscriptions of 
the inhabitants of New York of the Jewish religion;" 
which two lots by the terms of the conveyance were 
"to be and remain forever "^'thereafter, a burial place 
for the habitants of the city of New York, being of 
the Jewish religion, and to and for no other use, in- 
tent, or purpose whatsoever." These two lots, which 
had together a front of 50 feet by 112 deep, were on 
the easterly side of the present Gold Street, between 
Ferry and Beekman Streets, and I have been thus 
particular in describing the conveyance of them, as it 
is necessary in connection with what will be here- 
after stated to show where the old burial ground was. 
This property having been obtained, a petition 
signed by Louis Gomez and eleven others was, on the 
23d of August, 1728, presented to the Common Coun- 
cil, setting forth that the "inhabitants ot the City of 
New York of the Jewish religion'' had "some years 
since purchased a small piece of land beyond the Fresh 
Water for a burying place," that the "said burying 
place was then full," and that "they would have pur- 
chased some more land adjourning thereto, but it 
being in dispute, they could not obtain any title to it;" 
that they "were consequently obliged to purchase 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 35 

lots of land lyings near the Cripple Bush or swamp, 
but would not presume to make a burying place 
thereof without the leave of the Common Council;" 
which petition closed with the request that permis- 
sion would be given, and the application was granted. 
From circumstances which afterwards occurred^ 
these two lots were never used for the purpose for 
which they had been bought, and as an explanation 
of what subsequently transpired will show very clear- 
ly where the first burial ground was, I will give the 
facts with more minuteness of detail than would 
otherwise have been called for, as a portion of this 
old burial ground still remains, and it may be inter- 
esting to know that the small piece of land in the 
New Bowery, below Oliver Street, now enclosed from 
the street by an iron railing and kept as an old Jewish 
grave-yard, is a part of what was the first burial place 
of the Jewish race in North America. 

It will be remembered that I stated that the order 
made in 1656, granting the Jews a burial-ground,^ 
refers to the place as "outside the City." There was 
at that time but one road leading outside the City. 
There was an open or clear space beyond the City 
Wall, but this, as a locality, was generally referred 
to in deeds and other documents, as ''outside the 
City gate." It did not reach very far, and beyond it 
a dense forest extended for nearly two miles in the 
direction of Chatham Square; whilst the land to the 
West, between this wood and the Hudson River, was 
broken up by low irregular hills, swamps, marshes, 
and large deposits of water. The road referred to as 
leading "outside the City," began at the Watergate, 
about the corner of the present Wall and Pearl Streets 
for at that time the water of the East River reached 
up as far as Pearl Street, and the road ran along the 
edge of the water to what is now Fulton street. At 



3^' JEWS IN NORTH AMKRICA 

this point it turned, running along in about the 
direction of the present Pearl Street, to its junction 
with Chatham Street, when it extended up Chatham 
street and up the Bowery to Harlem. What is now 
Chatham Square^ was then the southern limit of a 
range of high hills, or perhaps more properly, an ele- 
vated plateau, extending on the one side as far as the 
point where Mulberry Street intersects Canal Street, 
whilst on the easterly side of Chatham Square, this 
line of hills curved across the present Oliver and 
Catherine Streets, towards Monroe Street and then 
ran along what is now very nearly the line of Monroe 
Street to Rutgers Street. This elevated land, which 
extended northerly in the direction of Harlem, being 
in the early settlement well adapted for cultivation 
whilst the meadows below it and east of it, that is, 
between it and the East River, being highly prized 
by the Dutch for the pasturing of cattle, the whole 
v/as parcelled among the early settlers into farms, 
or as the Dutch called them, Bouweries, a word that 
has survived in the name of the present street, the 
Bowery, which was originally the road leading 
through these Bouweries in the direction of Harlem. 
These farms, or Bouweries, were at first leased out by 
the Dutch Governor, to the original settlers, but 
being exposed to attacks from the Indians, and hav- 
ing been twice devastated by the savages, they were 
almost deserted about the time of the arrival of the 
first Jewish emigrants in 1654. It was to this locality, 
afterwards known as Batavia, that the descriptive 
words "outside the City," in the order allowing the 
Tews a place of burial appropriately applied in 1656, 
and that this was the place where the first burial 
ground stood, T will now proceed to show. 

Within the space now bounded by Broadway, 
Canal, Mulberry, Chatham and Reade Streets, there 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 3y 

was a lake of considerable extent called by the Dutch 
"The Kollock," and by the English, "The Fresh 
Water," which had an outlet into the East River^ by 
a small stream called the "Oulde Kill," which 
crossed Chatham Street near Roosevelt Street, and 
came out into the East River at the bottom oi James 
Street. This "Kill" or small stream was then and 
long afterwards regarded as the boundary line be- 
tween the city and the country, and is distinguished 
as such in many of the early municipal regulations. 
(38). 

It crossed the only road leading from the City, and 
being a convenient line of separation, the land below 
it, that is, between it and the City Wall, or the pres- 
ent Wall Street, was uniformly known as the "City 
Commons," (39) and all above and beyond it upon 
this road was "outside the City." This little stream 
was also the southern boundary of a farm which 
extended along what is now Chatham Street, to a 
little above Oliver Street,from whence the line of this 
farm ran to about the present Madison Street, and 
then southerly along Madison Street to the Kill^ or 
small stream mentioned. This farm was one of the 
original "Bouweries,'" granted in 1650, by Governor 
Stuy vesaut to Wolfert Webbers. The space between 
it and the East River was in part a meadow and^ in 
part a low marshy ground, or swamp. The elevated 
land above was known in the Dutch period as 
Wolfert's Bouwery; and the land below as Wolfert's 
Meadow, Near the point where this farm begaoj on 
the highway, or a little below the present corner of 
Chatham and Roosevelt Streets, there was a copious 
spring of pure and delightful water, that descended 



38. Val. Man. for 1866, pp. 611. 

39. Ordinances of Nov. 18th 1731, 20tb, 27tb, 33d. 



38 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

from and was filtered through the range of hills 
above. There was at this period and for a long time 
afterwards, no city perhaps in the world, the water of 
which was as bad as that of New York. It was, in 
fact, so bad that horses coming in from the countiy 
wouldn't drink it. This spring was therefore highly 
prized, and was a notable place with which all the 
inhabitants of the City were familiar, and to which 
all classes were accustomed to resort, especially on 
Sundays, and holidays, for the pleasure of drinking 
this water. Both it and the kill or stream were 
known in 1728, and long before and afterwards as the 
*'Fresh Water," (40) and the statement in the peti- 
tion of the Jewish inhabitants in 1728 that they had 
"some years since purchased a small piece of land be- 
yond the Fresh Water, for a burying place," indicates 
that this burying ground was beyond and very near 
this well-known spring. 

The spring was situated iu a low valley, close to the 
highway and to the kill, which at this point (Chatham 
near Roosevelt Street) was crossed by a bridge called 
the Kissing Bridge, from an old custom of the city, 
by which any gentleman riding or walking across 
this bridge with a lady had the right to salute her. 
The land above rose as it does now, until it reached 
its general level above the head of Chatham Square, 
which was then, as it is still, an open triangular 
space. At the broad end of this open space, between 
what is now Division Street and East Broadway, was 
the farm-house of Harmanus Rutgers, with its build- 
ings and gardens. On the eastern side of what is now 
Chatham Square, near the present Oliver Street, stood 
a wind-mill, and to the south of this wind-mill, on the 
crest of the hill and facing the East, was this oldjew- 

40. Com. Council, Minutes of May 19th, 1732. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA ' 30 

ish burial ground. It is indicated upon the earliest 
map known of the city, that of 1664, and its exact 
place is easily determined by Holland's map of 1757, 
Maerschalckm's of 1755, and 1763, Ratzer'sof 1765, 
and Montresor's of 1775. It was in 1728, and for 
many years afterwards, in a very beautiful position 
overlooking the meadows below and the city to the 
south of it and commanding an extensive view of the 
course of the East River and of the neighboring shores 
of Long Island. (41). 

It is said in Booth's History of the City of New 
York, that a Jewish cemetery was first established in 
the city in 1731, that it was bounded by Chatham, 
Oliver, Henry and Catherine Streets, and was given 
by Noe Willey, of London, to his three sons, mer- 
chants in New York, to be held as a burial place for 
the Jewish nation forever. No part of this statement 
is correct. Roy, not Noe Willey, an apothecary of 
London, became the owner of the farm or Bouwerie 
on which this first burying ground stood, under these 
•circumstances. It had passed from the original 
proprietor, Wolfert Webbers, by successive convey- 
ance, until it was conveyed in 1698, by William 
Merritt, a former Mayor of the city, to William Jane- 
way, a purser of a British vessel of war. Janeway, 
in 1699, executed a mortgage upon it to Tennis and 
Jacob Dekay, two persons in New York, for ;^500, 
and then mortgaged it again in London, in 1700, to 
Roy Willey for ^340, concealing the fact of the first 



41. There is a print in Valentine's Manual for 1861. p. 520 
purporting to give a view of this locality and its surroundings at an 
■early period, with the Jewish burial ground in the distance, butUks 
many of the prints in these manuals, it is not the copy of an actual 
drawing, but an imaginary production, of little value to an investi- 
gator. As a representation of the Jewish burial ground at any 
period, it is wholly unreliable. 



40 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

mortgage. Janeway died in 1726, and Willey's 
mortgage being long past due, he instructed an 
attorney in New York to obtain the payment of it, 
when the existence of the first mortgage came to 
light. Willey then sent out a power of attorney to 
one Richard Davis, the surgeon of a vessel of war 
upon the New York station, authorizing him to do- 
whatever might be essential to secure Willey's rights. 
By an aet passed in the reign of William and Mary, it 
was declared that, if any one should join in a second 
mortgage upon land, concealing the existence of a 
prior mortgage, he should forfeit thereafter all right 
to redeem the land One of the Dekays was then 
dead, and had left his interest in the first mortgage 
to his widow, and Davis commenced proceedings to 
enable Willey, by paying the first mortgage, to cut 
ojBf all claims of the Dekays, or of the heirs to Jane- 
way, and obtain the land himself in satisfaction of 
his mortgage. This litigation was pending in the 
Court of Chancery in 1728, and this was the difficulty 
to which the Jewish petitioners to the Common 
Council, in 1728, referred, when they stated in their 
petition, that ''they would have purchased some 
more land adjoining the burial-ground they then 
had, but it being in dispute they could not obtain 
any title to it.'' In 1729, however, a settlement was- 
effected by Davis. 

Jacob Dekay and the widow of his brother, and 
also the heirs of Janeway, executed conveyances tO' 
Willey, by which, without any fuither litigation, he 
became the owner of the land (42) in all of wliicb 
conveyances, two places upon the farm, "the Jews' 
burial ground," and "the family vault of Wm. De 



(42) N. Y. Reg of Deeds, Lib. 31, pp. 109, 406. Albany- 
Deeds, No 9, p. 474. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 41 

Meyer," a former owner of the farm, were excepted. 
Roy Willey, thus having become the owner of the 
property, the difSculty of obtaining land adjoining 
the old burial place was removed, and measures were 
immediately taken to procure it by purchase from 
Willey. 

Indeed, iu anticipation of this settlement, Willey 
sent out in 1728, a power ot attorney to Davis, 
giving him authority to execute a deed of the lands 
required and on the 17th of December, 1720, Davis, 
as the attorney of Willey, conveyed to Luis Gomez, 
and his three sons, Mordecai, Daniel and David, for 
the consideration of £2P^ a piece of ground which iu 
the language of the deed, began "at the south-east 
corner of the Jewish burial-place," and extended to 
the "Highway," the present line of Chatham Square. 
It was an oblong piece of land, 392 feet long by 56 
feet broad in the widest part, the boundaries being so 
arranged, and so expressed in the deed, as to take in 
in the rear, or southernmost part of it, the existiiip 
Jewish burial ground which as thus included, con- 
stituted about one thiid of the whole. (43) 

This deed fixes the exact locality of the burial- 
ground referred to by the Jewish residents, in their 



(43) The official papers above referred to are at present to be 
found in the Register's Office, New York City. Copies of them 
appeared in the Menorah, July, 1892. About 1850, some years 
after the land in question had ceased to be used as a burial ground, 
the property in question became the subject of a law-suit. The 
widow of one of the descendants of the original grantees sued the 
Tradesmen's Bank, which then owned the property, for dower, 
but lost the suit, because her husband's ancestors and his associates 
only took the land as a trust. Much interesting information in 
regard to the plaintiffs family and the early history of the cemetery 
developed in the course of the trial. See the report of the case 
Gomez versus Tradesmen's Bank, 4 Sandford's Reports, 102. — 
Editor. 



42 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

petition to the Common Council in the previous 
year, and as they state in that petition that it was 
then full, and as the Jewish population of the city up 
to that time was a very small one, there can be no 
doubt that it was the original burial ground of 
1656. 

In Maerschalckm's map of 1755, sixteen years attei 
the purchase of the additional ground from Willey, 
the old burial ground as it was then enclosed and 
fenced in, is represented as situated a little above 
Madison Street, and as extending over the present 
Oliver Street, for about one-third of the block (44^ 
and in Lieut. Ratzer's map of 1763, (45) it is repre- 
sented as still enclosed and separated from the rest 
of the ground, with a small square enclosure in the 
front of it, that I take to be the family vault of De 
Meyer, which had been reserved by the De Meyers 
when they conveyed the land, and being reserved 
also in the conveyance by the De Kays to Willey in 
1729, could not be disturbed. (46) 

On the 24th of November, 1730, Luis Gomez and 
his three sons, Mordecai, Daniel and David, executed 
an instrument reciting the conveyance of the lands by 
David to them as the agent of Willey; that they had 
appropriated ^30 for the purchase of it "for a burial 



(44) Val. Man. for 1849, P- HO- 

(45) N. Y. Reg. of Deeds, Lib. 18, pp. i66, 167. Albany Deeds, 
No. 9, p. 474. 

(46J It is said in Scovill's Old Merchants of New York, Vol. 2. 
p. 121, that there were monuments upon this ground, bearing date 
1652, which would be two years after the original grant of the lana 
by Governor Stuyvesant. This date, 1652, is probab'y a mistake, 
Scovill, the author of this work, being a loose and very inaccurate 
writer. Greenleaf, however, the author of an account of the 
churches of New York, a careful and accurate writer, states that 
there were tombstones there of the date of 1678, a fact strengthen- 
ing the conclusion that this was the first burial ground. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 43 

place for the use of the Jewish nation in general," 
and that the title, though in their names, was in 
trust; by which instrument they bound themselves 
in the sum of ;£i,ooo to Jacob Franks and Nathan 
Levy, merchants of New York, that they would not 
sell the land or any part of it, but that it should 
remain "forever" thereafter as " a burying place for 
the Jewish nation in general and to no other use 
•whatever," (47) 

This enlargement of the original burying ground 
having been thus affected, the two lots in Gold Street 
were not used for the purpose for which they were 
"bought, but remained in the Gomez family, as I find 
they were advertised for sale by the widow of Morde- 
cai Gomez in 1752. (48) 

•When Madison, then called Baucker Street, was 
laid out in 1755, the rear of the burial ground was 
extended to that street, and when the upper part of 
Oliver Street, then called Fayette Street, was opened 
after the Revolution, it took off a part of the burial 
ground extending over Oliver Street, and when 
Chatham Square was regulated and paved about the 
commencement of this century, it took off a portion 
of the front. In this condition it remained with but 
few material alterations until 1823, when the Con- 
gregation Shearith Israel, the Mill Street Syna- 
gogue, applied to Chancellor Kent for liberty to sell 
the part fronting on Chatham Square, 45 feet to the 
<3epth of 88 feet, which was granted, and it was 
accordingly sold to the Tradesmen's Bank for ^15,000, 
but how or in what way this Congregation obtained 
or could convey any title to it, does not appear. 
Daniel Gomez, the survivor of the four original trus- 



(47) N. Y. Reg. of Deeds, Lib. 31, p. 374- 

(48) N. Y. GaEette, Feb. 3d, 1752. 



44 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

tees, removed before the Revolution to Philadelphia^ 
and, 1828 his grandson, Isaac Gomez, Jr., released to 
the Mill Street Synagogue all his estate or right in 
the land, as the surviving representative of his grand- 
father, David Gomez, and a few days after this 
release was executed, this Congregation applied to 
Chancellor Walworth for liberty to sell the rear part 
of the land, fronting upon Oliver and Madison Streets. 
There was at that time a heavy assessment on it of 
$11,626.54, for the improvements made in the vicin- 
ity, whilst it was no longer available as a burial 
ground, the City Corporation having prohibited 
burials in that part of the city. The Congregation 
Shearith Israel, to prevent its being sold for the pay- 
ment of the assessment, mortgaged it to Harman 
Hendricks, who had advanced the money to pay the 
assessment and the accumulated interest, and the Con- 
gregation having incurred an additional debt to enable 
them to purchase a new burial giound in Eleventh 
Street, this application to the Court of Chancery was 
made that they might pay oft the whole debt, $22,132.- 
43, by the sale of the rear part of the ground. The 
application was granted, and the portion referred ta 
was sold in 1829 ^^ David Bryson and Robert Swan- 
ton. Finally, a few years ago, the Bowery was 
extended through what remained of it, and all that 
is now left is the small enclosure fronting the New- 
Bowery, before referred to, a portion of which is a 
part of the original burying ground of 1656. 

On the 15th of November, 1727, an act was passed 
by the General Assembly of New York providing 
that, when the oath of abjuration was to be taken 
by any one of his Majesty's subjects professing the 
Jewish religion, the words "upon the true faith of a 
Christian, "might be omitted, and on the i8th of the 
same month an act was passed naturalizing Daniel 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 45 

Nunez Da Costa, a Jewish resident of the city of 
New York, (49) which was virtually abrogating the 
general act of 1683, before referred to, which limited 
the naturalization of foreigners to those professing 
the Christian religion. (50). 

In 1737, the election of Col. Frederick Phillips as 
a representative to the General Assembly for the 
County of Westchester was contested by Capt. Corne- 
lius Van Home, who claimed the seat. The Assembly 
ordered an investigation before the House, and after 
Van Home's case had been heard, Col. Phillips 
called some persons of the Jewish persuasion to give 
evidence on behalf of Phillips, when an objection 
was made to their competency as witnesses. The 
matter was argued by the counsel for the respective 
parties, and Col. Phillips desiring that the sense of 
the House should be taken, both parties were 
requested to withdraw, and after some time they 
were called in and informed by the Speaker that it 
was the opinion of the House that "none of the 
Jewish profession could be admitted as evidence" in 
such a controversy. From what subsequently 
occurred, it would seem that some of those who had 
voted at this election were Jews, for, after again hear- 



49. Strangely enough, some years before this statute was 
passed, in July, 1723, an act was passed naturalizing the following 
among others: Abraham Isaacs, David Elias. Jacob Hays, Joseph 
Simson, Isaac Rodrigues, Solomon Myers. It does not appear 
that any special provision, permitting them to omit the words 
*'upon the true faith of a Christian " was included in the act. 
(Journal of Legislative Council of New York, Vol. I, p. 127.) The 
reader is referred to a lengthy consideration of the various statutes 
of naturalization, contained in a letter written by Judge Daly some 
years ago,and reprinted in "The Jewish Messenger." See Appendix 
11.— Editor. 

50. Journal of Legislative Council of New York. Vol. I, xii. 
pp. 560, 561. 



46 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

ing arguments from the counsel of both parties, the 
House resolved that, as it did not appear that persons 
of the Jewish religion had a right to vote for members 
of Parliament in Great Britain, it was the unanimous 
opinion of the House that they could not be admitted 
to vote for representatives in the colony (51). The 
author of the continuation of Smith's History of 
New York refers to this as a remarkable decision, and 
in explanation ot it says: "that Catholics and Jews 
had long been peculiarly obnoxious to the colonists," 
that "the first settlers being Dutch, and mostly of 
the Reformed Protestant religion, and the migrations 
from England, since the colony belonged to the 
Crown, being principally Episcopal, both united in 
their aversion to the Catholics and Jews." (52) But 
there is no ground for inferring that this decision 
proceeded from any peculiar colonial aversion to the 
Jews. The question was simply one of law. The 
counsels of the respective contestants availed them- 
selves as is usual in such cases, of every legal object- 
ion that would operate to the advantage of their case, 
and this point being raised, the House had to pass 
upon it. (53) The law of the Colony of New York 

51. N. Y. Journal of Assembly, Vol. I., p 712, printed by H. 
Saines, 1764. 

52. Smith's History of New York, Albany edition, of 1814^ 
p. 423. 

53. As this was a contested election case, it can scarcely be pos- 
sible that the arguments advanced on behalf of the one side would 
have secured a unanimous vote in their favor, had they not been 
convincing. It is, however, another question whether any one 
specially espousing the cause of the Jews and acquainted with 
everything bearing on the subject was present, to present the 
contrary view. There is no record of any such plea or pleader. 
As stated elsewhere, however, the legal question involved is by 
no means so one-sided as appears from the above; the reasons for 
my opinion will be found elsewhere. Upon this particular resolu- 
tion, the following criticism is found in the writings of Wm H. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 47 

was especially modeled upon that of the mother 
country. Unlike the New England colonies, New 
York was a conquered province and when it was 
taken from the Dutch, the English mode of proced- 
ure in all matters of law and government, was intro- 
duced bodily, and from this circumstance English 
forms, precedents, and modes of proceedings came 
into use to an extent that did not prevail in other 
colonies where the people themselves had been left 
to originate and frame such a system of government 
and laws as was suggested by their wants and was 
most conducive to their interests. When the legis- 
lative Assembly of New York, therefore, unanimously 
decided that no Jew could vote for a member of that 
body, they were but simply declaring the law as it 
existed in England, for it was not until a compara- 
tively recent period that a Jew could vote at an 
election in Great Britain (54). 



Seward, immediately following strong commendation of this very 
legislature: "Yet the record contains one spot which the friends 
of rational liberty would wish to see effaced. On a question con- 
cerning a contested seat, the Assembly resolved that Jews could 
neither vote for representatives nor be admitted as witnesses." 
—Editor. 

54. Appendix II. contains a very valuable exposition of the Legal 
Status of the Jews in England, and it is clear from an examination 
of the Journal of the Legislative Council of New York, that they 
limited their consideration of the question to an inquiry as to the 
legal status of the Jews of England.and adapted the same standard. 
Judge Daly's exposition of this is unassailable. 

I wish, however, to offer a brief for the Jews, and shall proceed 
to a consideration of some of the colonial laws bearing on the 
subject. Before doing so, I ,wish to call attention to the fact that 
this very session of the Legislature was conspicuous for its 
championship of colonial liberty and charter rights over against 
British royalistic expositions of them. 

We have seen that in the Dutch p^^riod orders were issued on 
April 21, 1657, by the Director General and Council, requiring the 



48 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

There was, as the writer suggests, a very strong 
antipathy to Jews and Roman Catholics. Indeed, so 
intolerant was their spirit in respect to them, that 
there were few of any of those persuasions at that 
time in the colony. But the feeling in respect to the 
Jews was constantly relaxing, as will appear from 
what lias been already narrated. They were compara- 
tively a small body, dwelling chiefly in the City of 
New York, and so far from being regarded with 
aversion they enjoyed privileges not extended to Jews 
in other colonies, and had among their number some 
of the most influential and respected merchants of 
the city. Smith, who was mucli better able to judge 
than the writer, who continued his history, in speak- 
ing of the Jews, says that, "they were not incon- 
siderable for their numbers; " but there is contempor- 
ary evidence which is decisive. Kalm, the Swedish 
traveler, visited New York eight years after the 
period of which I am writing, and remained in the 
city and in the colony a sufficient length of time to 
render all that he has written exceedingly valuable. 
He says, "There are many Jews settled in New York 
who possess great privileges. They have a synagogue 
and houses, great country-seats of their own property, 
and are allowed to keep shops in the town . They 
have likewise several ships which they freight and 
send out with their goods." 



Burgomasters of New Amsterdam n admit Salvator D'Andrada 
and other Jews, petitioners, to the rights of citizenship. Under the 
Dutch, the Jews had freedom of trade and the privilege of admis- 
sion into the trade guilds, and their worship in private quarters 
was not interfered with. By the express terms of the Capitulation 
of New Amsterdam, it was agreed by the British that "All people 
in New Amsterdam shall still continue free denizens and shall 
enjoy their lands, houses, goods, whatsoever, etc.," and also that 
" The Dutch here shall enjoy the liberty of their consciences in 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 49 

In fine, the Jews enjoy all the privileges common to 
the other inhabitants of this town and province" (55) 

Divine worship and Church discipline." The Jews residing 
within the city came within the letter and the spirit of these stipu- 
lations, which were reiterated in the Treaty of Brida. 

We have already referred to various Jews who became freemen 
of New York, under the provisions of the ducal or royal charters of 
New York. In addition to those I have named elsewhere, I may 
add Joshua David, Sr. and Jr., Moses Levy. Isaac Rodrigues 
Marques, Joseph Isaacs Butcher, and others, who were admitted 
prior to 1700, and thus secured trade privileges and the right to 
vote for officers. (See N. Y. Hist. Society Collections for 1885.) 

Strangely enough, the Statute of New York, George 1., passed 
in 1715, which provided for the mode of naturalizing aliens subse- 
quent to its enactment in Section 4, expressly limits the privilege 
to Protestants, but by a former section of the same statute "every 
person of foreign birth now alive, and who did inhabit within the 
Colony before the said first day of November, 1683, shall forever 
hereafter be deemed to have been naturalized, and shall enjoy all 
the Rights, Privileges and Advantages that any of his Majesty's 
natural- born subjects of this Colony do or of right ought to enjoy." 
(Laws of New York, 1691,1773, p. 99) This section contains 
no such limitation as to Religion, and must have had the effect 
of naturalizing Jewish residents, who had lived in the State prior 
to 1683. 

After this period, 1723- 1727, etc., as stated in the text and in 
Note 49, Jews were naturalized by special act. Taking into con- 
sideration, therefore, these colonial laws and statutes, as well as 
the international obligations created by the capitulation of 1664, 
and the Treaty of Brida, I think that the Legislature should have 
reached a contrary result in the election controversy of 1737. With 
the effects of the English statutes of 13 Geo. II. c. 7, I shall not 
deal as Judge Daly has referred to it at length. Attorney- General 
Rosendale of this State pointed out at the recent meeting of the 
American Jewish Historical Society, that this Act provided for 
keeping a registry of the names of all aliens naturalized under it in 
England, and that the lists might be still accessible in England, 
and prove of considerable value in identifying American Jewish 
settlers.— Editor. 

55. This reference to the Jews of New York is of considerable 
interest ; I give it in full, therefore : 



50 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

Thisis very conclusive, and he had the means of obtain- 
ing correct information, for he says tliat during his 
residence in the city he was frequently in company with 
Jews, and that he went twice to the synagogue in Mill 



"Nov. 2 (1748). Besides the different sects of Christians, there 
are many Jews settled in New York, who possess preat privileges. 
They have a synagogue and houses, and great country-seats of 
their own property, and are allowed to keep shops in town. They 
have likewise several ships, which they freight, and send out with 
their own goods. In fine they enjoy all the privileges common to 
the other inhabitants of this town and province. 

During my residence at New York this time and in the next two 
years, I was frequently in company with Jews. I was informed, 
among other things, that these people never boiled any meat tor 
themselves on Saturday, but that they always did it the day before; 
and that in winter they kept no fire during the whole Saturday. 
They commonly eat no pork ; yet I have been told by several men 
of credit, that many of them (especially among the joung Jews) 
when traveling, did not make the least difficulty about eating this, 
or any other meat that was put before them ; even though they 
were in company with Christians. I was in their synagogue last 
evening for the first time, and this day at noon visited it again, and 
each time I was put into a particular seat which was set apart for 
strangers or Christians. A young Rabbi read the Divine service; 
which was partly in Hebrew and partly in the Rabbinical dialect. 
Both men and women were dressed entirely in the English fashion; 
the former had all of them their hats on, and did not once take 
them off during service. The galleries, I observed, were appro- 
priated to the ladies, while the men sat below. During prayers, 
the men spread a white cloth over their heads, which perhaps is to 
represent sackcloth. But I observed that the wealthier sort of 
people had a much richer sort of cloth than the poorer ones. 
Many of the men had Hebrew books, in which they sang ard read 
alternately. The Rabbi stood in the middle of the synagogue, and 
read with his face turned towards the east ; he spoke, however, so 
last as to make it almost impossible for any one to understand 
what he said." — Travels in North America, by Peter Kalm, 
reprinted in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels Vol. xii. p. 455-6. 
This description of New York City was reprinted in the Manual of 
the Common Council of New York for 1869, p. 837 at pp. 841-2. — 
Editor. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 5 1 

Street to witness their religious exercises. It may be 
inferred from this statement that they enjoyed at this 
time every civil and political privilege, except the 
right to vote for members of the colonial Legislature, 
which was withheld, not in any spirit of local pre- 
judice, but in conformity to what had been the rule 
in Great Britain for centuries, and which was regarded 
as controlling in the colonies. 

There is but little to say respecting the further 
history of the Jews in the Colony of New York, after 
the period to which I have last referred, 1748 (56). 

An outrage perpetrated upon the rights of one of 
them in 1749, which was made the subject of an 
official communication by Governor Clinton, may 
be referred to as illustrating the difficulty at that time 
in the colony, of obtaining justice when the per- 
petrator belonged to one of the influential aristocratic 
families. A Jew from Holland, where, according to 
the record, "he had lived in a handsome manner, 
and had kept his own coach, but had become unfor- 
tunate' ' emigrated to New York with his wife, who 
iu personal appearance resembled Lady Clinton, the 
wife of the Governor, a dignified and fine-looking 
woman, Oliver De Lancey, the brother of the Chief 
Justice of the Province, with several associates, 
having disguised their persons and blackened their 
faces, went to this man's residence and after breaking 
his windows and forcing open his door, entered his 
dwelling, "where they pulled and tossed everything 
to pieces," during which De Lancey profiered in an 
indecent speech to take improper liberties with the 
man's wife, for the reason, as he averred, that she 

56. The further account of the Jews in New York up to Note 60 
Inclusive appeared several years later in "The Jewish Times," 
December 3, 1875, For convenience, I have incorporated it 
here. — Editor. 



52 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

was like Lady Clinton. The insulted husband, whose 
privacy and dwelling: had thus been invaded, applied 
to the three leading lawyers of the province to insti- 
tute proceedings against the offenders, and received 
from each the same answer, that it was impossible to 
do anything, as the principal offender was a brother 
of the Chief Justice (57). 

From this period to the American Revolution, 
there was but little increase in the Jewish population. 
During the quarter of a century that preceded that 
event, the population of New York increased at a 
greater ratio than at any previous period. It took 
half a century — from 1700-1750 — for it to double; but 
it more than doubled in the twenty-five years that 
followed, increasing from about 9000 in 1750, to 
about 23,000 in 1776. The Jewish population, how- 
ever, did not augment in the same proportion. It 
received some additions by emigration, chiefly from 
England, but not suflBcient to counteract the loss of 
others who went to Newport, Cliarleston or Phila- 
delphia. 

Though small, however, it still continued to be a 
highly respectable and influential body, having among 
its members some of the principal merchants of the 
city. Of this number was Hayman Levy, who was 
the head of one of the principal mercantile firms of 
the city. Levy, Lyons & Co., having a branch in 
Europe, Levy, Solomon & Co. Mr. Levy carried on 
an extensive business for many years, chiefly among 
the Indians, by whom he was widely known and with 



57. Governor Clinton's letter, is to be found in Colonial Docu- 
ments Relating to the State of New York, Vol. vi. p. 471. From 
the same it appears that the culprit, Oliver De Lancey,was guilty of 
other riotous proceedings, and there is nothing to show that the 
failure to secure his punishment was in any way due to the fact 
that the injured parties were Jews. — Editor. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 53 

whom he had great influence. His place of business 
was in Mill Street, not far from the synagogue, and 
as he not only purchased all that the Indians brought 
for traffic, but kept everything in his large establish- 
ment to supply their wants, the Indians who came to 
the city dealt largely with him, and at certain seasons 
of the year were to be seen in large numbers lining 
the street in the vicinity of his warehouse. 

The great respect they entertained for him and the 
universal confidence they had in him, were due to his 
thorough knowledge of their character, habits and 
wants, and to the fact that he was, in all his rela- 
tions with them, and with others, an honest and 
high-minded merchant. From his extensive connec- 
tion with them, he became the largest fur trader in 
the colonies and one of the most opulent merchants 
in the city. 

The restrictive acts of Parliament, however, and 
the general colonial policy pursued by the govern- 
ment, produced an injurious effect upon the com- 
merce and industrial interest of New York, and 
Hayman I^evy, from his widely extended business 
was among the first to feel it. He failed in 1768, but 
so productive was his estate and so well had his busi- 
ness been conducted, that his assignees were enabled 
to discharge the whole of his indebtedness, with 
interest. All his property was destroyed by the great 
fire in 1776, but notwithstanding this additional 
calamity he was enabled to carry on business after- 
wards on his own account until his death in 
1790. 

Upon his books are entries of monies paid to John 
Jacob Astor, for beating furs, at the rate of one dollar 
a day. As Mr. Astor, the founder of the colossal 
fortune now inherited by his heirs, came to New 
York in 1784 and began business on his own account 



54 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

in 1/86, Hayman Levy was probably one .of the first 
persons by whom he was employed. In 1779, a 
daughter of this prominent merchant, Miss Zeporah 
Levy, who has been described as a beautiful woman, 
was married to Benjamin Hendricks, a native of this 
city, the founder of a well-known, long maintained 
and wealthy commercial house. Mrs. Hendricks 
survived to 1833, leaving behind her seventy grand- 
children . 

Anothei; prominent Israelite merchant and ship- 
owner of this period was Sampson Simson. He has 
been described as a maa of great liberality, humanity, 
and ot the strictest integrity, sincere and unpretend- 
ing in his religious convictions. He took an active 
part among the patriotic merchants who resisted the 
aggressive acts of the British Goverumeut, and died 
in 1775. 

Isaac Gomez was also a well-known Jewish mer- 
chant of that time. I am unable to say whether he 
belonged to the family of that name previously 
referred to, or whether he was the progenitor, or con- 
nected with iVbraham and Beniamin Gomez, the 
principals of a leading Jewish commercial house in 
the first part of the present century. (58.) 

58, It is interesting to note in th's connection an incident to 
which Prof. Cyius Adler recently called attention; his information 
was ba^ed on an unpublished letter of Jared Sparks. "At the out- 
bieakof the Revolutionary War a Mr. Gomez of New York proposed 
to a member of the Continental Congress that he form a com- 
pany of soldiers for service. The member of Congress remon- 
strated with Mr, Gomez on the score of age, he then being 68, to 
which Mr. Gomez replied that he could stop a bullet as well as a 
younger man." Report of Organization American Jewish Histori- 
cal Society, p. 1 1. A number of other references to the service of 
Jews in the American army during the Revo'ution and the later 
Wars are at hand, but it would lead us too far from our subject to 
give them here. Hon. Simon Wolf will soon offer us the fruits of 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 55 

It would exceed the limits I have proposed to 
myself, to give an account of the Israelites who have 
been especially prominent in New York after the 
Revolution; I will however, mention one, as he was 
the father of one of your most distinguished mem- 
bers, Emanuel B. Hart. Bernard Hart was born in 
England in 1764. He came to this country in 1777, 
and after a short residence in Canada, settled in the 
City of New York in 1780. In the early part of his 
career, he carried on some commercial transactions 
with Canada,and was an insurance broker until about 
1802, when he became one of the members of the large 
auction and commission house ofl^ispenard and Hart. 
In 1806, he married a daughter of Benjamin Seixas, a 
leading Jewish merchant of the city, the lady being 
one of eight sisters, all of whom are said by a writer 
who knew them to have been lemarkable for "their 
wonderful beauty and exceeding loveliness, both in 
person and character." (59) This writer, Joseph A, 
Scovill, who had been himself a merchant, speaks of 
Mr. Hart, in view of his social influences, commercial 
position, and active humanity, as "towering aloft 
among the magnates of the city of the last and present 
century." He describes him during the prevalence 
of the Yellow Fever in New York, in 1795? as unceas- 
ing in his exertions night and day, among the sick 
and dying; hardly giving himself time to sleep or eat, 
in his unremitting efforts for the relief of the suffer- 
ing, and being — to employ the language of the writer 
— an angel of mercy in the awful days of that great 
pestilence, 

his labors in this direction. As for the Ne-.v York Jews, it speaks 
well for their patriotism that so many should have migrated to 
Philadelphia just before the British occupation of New York City. 
Many returned to New York subsequently. — Editor. ' 

59, Scovill's "Old Merchants" of New York, Vol. II. p, 125. 



56 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

y 

He was the founder and chief officer of a well- 
known social institution of the period, called '*The 
Friary," the parent of our present Clubs, and a 
prominent member of several other organizations, of 
diflferent names, composed chiefly of merchants, who 
met in the evening at some leading tavern for the 
purpose of intercourse, and todiscuss business matters, 
a kind of social and commercial exchange. Upon 
the formation of the Board of Brokers about 1818, he 
became the Secretary of that body, which position he 
held for the remainder of his life, dying in the city in 
1855, at the advanced age of 91. 

Mr. Scovill, in referring to the small number of 
Jewish merchants in this city in the early part of 
the present century, and the great contrast^ at the 
period at which he was writing (i868j, concludes 
with this remark: ''There are now," he says, "80,000 
Israelites in this city, and it is the high standard of 
excellence of the Old Israelite Merchants of 1800, 
that has made the race occupy the proud position it 
now holds in this city and in the nation." 

About the middle of the last century, but in 
what year I am not able to state, the Rev. Joseph 
Isaac Jerushalem Pinto became the minister of the 
synagogue in Mill Street. He died in 1763, and in 
1766 was succeeded by the Rev. Gershom Seixas, who 
continued in charge of the congregation for the long 
period of 50 years. Mr. Seixas was a man much 
esteemed not only among his own people, but in the 
community generally. He was a Trustee of Columbia 
College, from 1787 to 1815, when he resigned, an 
indication of the respect entertained for him, as the 
government ot Columbia College has, from its foun- 
dation, been confided almost exclusively to" Epis- 
copalians. He died in 1816, and was succeeded by 
Rev. Moses L. M. Peixotto. The synagogue erected 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 57 

in 1728, being decayed, was torn down in i8t8, and 
a new stone edifice, 33 by 58 feet, was erected upon 
the same site(6o). It was a plain, unostentatious build- 
ing, provided in the interior with a gallery forfemales. 

Mr. Peixotto, when placed in charge of the con- 
gregation, was a merchant in Front Street, and con- 
tinued to follow his mercantile calling for two years 
afterwards. In 1820, he withdrew altogether from 
business, taking up his residence at 105 Greenwich 
Street, from which he removed in 1822 to 15 Mill 
Street, next to the synagogue, where he died in 1827. 
He was a learned man, thoroughly versed in 
Hebrew, and a master of several other languages. 
I remember him as a dark-featured, square-built, 
middle-sized man, greatly addicted to snuff-taking, 
who spoke English with a strong accent, and some- 
what imperfectly. His successor was the Rev. Isaac 
B. Seixas, a nephew of the former incumbent of that 
name, a gentleman very much, esteemed, who 
remained in his charge until his death, in 1839, when 
he was succeeded by the Rev. Jacques J. Lyons. 

In 1824, ^ portion of the congregation, consisting 
mainly of members of Polish or German birth, separ- 
ated from the synagogue in Mill Street, and pur- 
chasing a church in Elm Street, formed a distinct 
congregation under the Rev. Mr. Hart, who was 
succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Meyer, and in 1839, by 
the Rev. S. M. Isaacs. In 1844, Mr- Isaacs, with a 
portion of the members withdrew, and formed a new, 
congregation in Franklin Street, and constituted, 
with Mr. Isaacs their minister, the synagogue now in 
44th Street. 

In 1833, the congregation in Mill Street sold the 
church property there, and erected a new synagogue 



60) Hardies N. Y. p. 163. 



5^ JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

in Crosby Street, near Spring Street, which they also 
afterwards, sold and erected the fine synagogue they 
now occupy in igth Street.- As the denomination 
have since greatly multiplied in New York, it would 
involve too much detail to give an account of the sub- 
sequent congregations. It will suffice to say that the 
Jews have now (1872) in New York 29 synagogues, 
and as a proportional part of the population, they are 
now estimated at about 70,000. (61) 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

My information is very meagre respecting the early 
settlement of the Jews in Pennsylvania. Several pro- 
minent families were established at Philadelphia, in 
the middle of the last century, some of whom were 
connected with those in New York (62). The Jews, 
both of Philadelphia and of New York, with few, if 
any, exceptions, were warm adherents of the Amer- 
ican Revolution. Prominent over all others, of the 
X, Jewish persuasion, was Haym Salomon. He was a 
native of Poland. When he came to this country, 
I do not know, nor do I know anything respecting 
him, until about the breaking out of the Revolution, 
when he was a man of large private fortune, engaged 
in commercial pursuits, of great financial resources, 
and ability, and of the highest personal integrity. He 
espoused the cause of the colonists, with great ardor, 
and supplied the government from his own means 

'61) In the Supplementary Chapter written by Judge Daly, 
for this series, the subject is continued. Even before 1833, other 
Jewish congregations existed in New York City besides those 
named. — Edit or. 

62) At the recent meeting of the Jewish Historical Society, held 
in Philadelphia, several interesting ind very elaborate papers on 
the early history of the Jews in Philadelphia were read. No doubt 
the proceedings of the Society, the first volume of which is soon to 
appear, will cast much new light on the subject. — EDITOR. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 59 

with a large amotint of money, at the most critical 
periods of the struggle. As appeared from document- 
ar)' evidence, afterwards submitted to Congress, he 
advanced to the Government altogether $658,007.13, 
an enormous sum at that period for a private individ- 
ual, when all commerce and busines was prostrated. 
But in addition to this, he supplied delegates to Con- 
gress and officers of the army and of the government 
with the means of defraying their ordinary expenses; 
among whom were Jefferson, Madison, Lee, Steuben, 
Mifflin, St. Clair, Wilson, Monroe, and Mercer. 
Madison wrote to the authorities in Virginia in 1783, 
" I am fast relapsing into pecuniary distress, and the 
case of my brethren is especially alarming. I have 
been a pensioner, for some time, upon the bounty of 
Haym Salomon. I am almost ashamed to reiterate 
my wants so incessantly to you. The kindness of 
Haym Salomon is a fund that will preserve me from 
extremities, but I never resort to it without great mor- 
tification, as he obstinately rejects all recompense." 
Such was the condition of many of our public men, 
at this period, that Robert Morris, writing in 1783, 
said that many of them could not, without payment, 
perform their duties, and must have gone to jail for 
the debts they had contracted to enable them to live, 
had they not received private assistance; and Robert 
Morris himself, in 1805, became an inmate of a debt- 
or's jail, through the responsibilities he had assumed, 
and ihe losses he had sustained in his efforts as its 
chief financial officer to sustain the government. Mr. 
Salomon was taken prisoner as early as 1775, and 
being confined at New York in that lonesome prison, 
the Provost, he contracted a disease which caused 
his death towards the close of the war. He died before 
he had taken any steps to secure a reimbursement by 
the Government of the large amount he had loaned 



6o JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

it, and left a wife and four small children, to use the 
language of a Congressional report, ''to hazard and 
neglect." Applications have been made to Congress 
by his heirs for the repayment of the amount loaned, 
or at least for some part of it. These applications led 
to the most thorough searches in the archives of the 
Government, and among the papers of Robert MorriS) 
but nothing was found showing that any portion of 
the amount had ever been repaid. Madison, in 1827, 
urged that the memorialists might be indemnified; 
and reports in their favor have frequently been made by 
Congressional committees, but down to 1864, not a 
dollar has been paid to them, a fact, I regret to say, 
\^hich affords support to the oft-repeated observations 
of the ingratitude of republics, (63) 

In 1782, the synagogue Mickve Israel was erected 
in Philadelphia, in Cherry Street, between Third and 
Fourth Streets. It appears from the Pennsylvania 
Archives {64), that a formal invitation was extended 
to the President and other officers ot Pennsylvania to 
be present at the consecration of it, and that the 
Trustees were Jonas Phillips, President; Michael 
Gratz, Solomon Marache, Solomon M. Cohen, and 
Simon Nathan. It appears to have been the first syn- 
agogue erected in that city, from which I infer that 
the Jews residents there before that period must have 
been very few in number. In 1824, it was replaced by 
a more spacious and elegant structure. In 1825, there 
were two syuagognes, and in 1854, five. 

Michael Gratz, one of the tmstees above-named, 



63. Hon. Simon Wolf has very recently been pressing these claims 
before Congress, on behalf of the descendants of Haym Salo- 
mon. An extremely interesting article on Mr. Salomon's services was 
written by Mr Wolf, and appeared in the Reform Advocate s first 
anniversary number, February 20, 1892. — Editor. 

64. Vol. X. p. 701, 13 Penn. Col. 367. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 6 1 

was the father of Rebecca Gratz, a maiden lady of 
Philadelphia, widely known there in all social circles, 
who lived to an advanced age, and distinguished not 
only for her stately carriage, dignified manners and 
personal beauty, but for her intellectual superiority 
and acquirements. It is said that Scott drew his 
character of Rebecca in " Ivanhoe " from the account 
he received of this interesting woman ; that when 
Lord Jeffrey visited this country in 1814 to marry 
Miss Wilkes, the future Lady Jeffrey, he made the 
acquaintance of Miss Gratz ; that he was struck with 
her beauty and dignified character, and gave such a 
glowing account of her to Scott that the great novel- 
ist embodied the description he received in the char- 
ter of Rebecca. The story is not in itself improba- 
ble, as Scott is known to have drawn several of his 
imaginary characters from real personages. A Phila- 
delphia newspaper has recently published this story 
with Washington Irving instead of Lord Jeffrey, 
Irving having visited Scott about a year before the 
latter wrote " Ivanhoe." The writer adds that 
Rebecca Gratz inspired Irving with the warmest 
regard he ever gave to any woman ; that she was the 
subject of his addresses at her house in Philadelphia, 
until she convinced him that no argument would 
ever induce her to forego her faith by marrying 
a Christian. Irving knew Miss Gratz, and Joseph 
Gratz, her brother or relative, was one of his early 
intimates, which is about all the foundation the writer 
had, I apprehend, for this statement. In addition, 
Lockhart says that the introduction of the Jewish 
character in "Ivanhoe" was suggested to Scott by 
his friend, Mr. Skene, in the early part of 1819, long 
after Mr. Irving' s visit, whilst the great writer was 
suffering from severe illness ; that Mr. Skene had 
passed some time in his youth in Germany, where he 



62 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

had seen much of the Jews, of whom, whilst he was 
attending his sick friend, he recounted many of his 
reminiscences ; and partly in seriousness, and partly 
to turn Scott's mind upon something' that might 
divert it in his illness, Mr. Skene suggested that a 
group of Jews would be an interesting feature if Scott 
could contrive to bring them into his next novel ; that 
after the appearance of " Ivanhoe", Scott called Mr. 
Skene's attention to this conversation with the re- 
mark : " You will find this bbok owes not a little to 
your German reminiscences." (65,) 

It is very probable that the name of Rebecca and 
the resemblance of Miss Gratz in person and character 
to the Jewish maiden that Scott has immortalized, 
was all the foundation there was for this story, which 
for half a century has beeu current in social circles 
in Philadelphia and New York. She seems to have 
been in every way worthy of Scott's ideal, for she 
had all Rebecca's devotion to her ancient faith, and 
attachment to her people, and throughout her life 
gave a certain portion of her time to unostentatious 
acts of benevolence in the relief of the wretched and 
suffering. 

MARYLAND. 

Maryland (66) has frequently been referred to as 
among the first of the colonies which, in the lan- 
guage of Bancroft, "adopted religious freedom as 
the basis of the State." (67.) It did, but with this 

65. Lockhart's " Life of Scott," Vol. 6, pp. 178 and 179. 

66. Much new light on the early history of the Jews in Mary- 
land was cast by the able paper already referred to on Jacob 
Lombroso ; read by Mr. J. H. Hollander, at the recent meeting of 
the American Jewish Historical Society. Hon. Oscar S. Straus 
has kindly called my attention to interesting data on the his- 
tory of the Jews of Maryland contained in a book of speeches 
on the " Jew Bill,'' 1824, edited by Brackenridge, in his possession. 

67. Bancroft's " History of the U.S.," p. 256. Langford, 27-32, 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 63 

qualification : that it was limited to those within the 
province professing to believe in Jesus Christ, and 
was accompanied by a proviso which declared that 
any person who denied the Trinity should be pun- 
ished with death. Maryland was, therefore, no place 
for Jews ; and even after the Revolution, by the bill 
of rights and constitution of Maryland, no one could 
hold any employment of profit or confidence under 
*'the State" without signing a declaration that he 
believed in the Christian religion ; and this exclu- 
sion of all of the Jewish faith was retained for a long 
time after the War of Independence. Efforts 
were made in the Legislature in 1801 and 1804 to 
obtain the repeal of this intolerant provision, but 
upon each occasion more than two-thirds of the mem- 
bers voted against its repeal. These efforts were 
renewed in 1819, when a very able report was sub- 
mitted by the committee to whom the subject was 
referred, recommending that there should be no 
religious test whatever, together with a bill to effect 
that object. The tenacity, in fact, with which Mary- 
land adhered to this provision had been previously 
widely discussed over the whole country, and uni- 
versally condemned in other States. John Adams, 
in a letter written in 1818, gave expression to the 
wish that " the Jews might be admitted to all 
the privileges of citizens of every country of the 
world, and that in this country, especially, we 
ought to annul every narrow idea in religion, gov- 
ernment and commerce." Jefferson and Madison 
were equally explicit in their condemnation of this 
intolerant restriction, but when the bill, reported by 
the committee, came up in the I^egislature, it was 
rejected, about the same proportion of members 
voting against it (68). In a few years afterwards, 

68. Niles' " Register," Vol. 15, p. 388. Suppl. p. 9 13.— Ed. 



64 JEWS IN NORT AMP RICA 

however, the provision was repealed, and in 1824 
two gentlemen of the Jewish persuasion were elected 
members of the City Council of Baltimore, being the 
first persons of that denomination who had held oflBce 
in Maryland. (69.) 

GEORGIA. 

The great number of persons that were confined in 
jails in England for debt, and the injurious effects of 
prison life upon their habits, manners, and prospects 
of future usefulness, induced General Oglethorpe to 
set on foot a scheme for establishing a colony in 
America between the Altemaha and Savannah River, 
to which this class and other destitute persons in Great 
Britian might be sent with the prospect of beginning 
the world anew, their passage being paid, the use of 
a tract of land being given to each of them for the 
period of ten years, and provision being made for their 
support for the first year. A charter was obtained, 
accompanied by a liberal grant of money from Parlia- 
ment, a company was organized, consisting of twenty- 
one trustees, who were clothed with plenary power for 
the government of the colony, and the additional 
funds requisite for this very expensive undertaking 
were to be raised by public subscription. The scheme 
gave rise to a great deal of public enthusiasm, and 
its benevolent projector, Oglethorpe, who was one of 
the trustees, went out with 115 of this class of persons, 
to what is now the State of Georgia to found the new 
colony. 

On the day, the 7th of July, 1733, that Oglethorpe 
had assembled the colonists, on the site of the present 
city of Savannah, for the purpose ofallptingto each 
settler his proportion of land, and of organizing a 
municipal government, a vessel directly from London, 



69. Sharf's " Chronicles of Baltimore,'' p. 240. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 65 

came np the Savannah River, whilst the colonists 
were partaking of a public dinner, given at the close 
of the day's proceedings, and landed forty Jewish 
emigrants. Their arrival was not expected, for the 
London company knew nothing of this emigration, 
until the vessels containing the emigrants, had left. 
The trustees of the company had commissioned three 
persons in London, Anthony Da Costa, Francis Sal- 
vador, and Alvarez Lopez Suasso, to obtain sub- 
scriptions. They collected a sum of money, but instead 
of paying it into the Bank of England, which had 
been selected as the place of deposit for subscriptions, 
they appropriated it towards sending out this body 
of Jewish emigrants. When the trustees had been 
informed of what had been done, they were very 
indignant and vacated the "commission," given to 
these gentlemen, that "the public mind might be 
disabused of any intention to make a Jews' colony of 
Georgia." They used every effort to undo what had 
been done. They urged Da Costa, , Salvador, and 
Suasso, to use their endeavors to have the Jews, 
who had emigrated, removed from the colony, and 
wrote to Oglethorpe, informing him of the departure 
of these Jewish emigrants, "expressing the hope that 
they would receive no encouragement from him," and 
that he would "use his best endeavors to prevent their 
settling in Georgia, as it would be prejudicial to the 
trade and welfare of the colony." 

In the judgment of a writer who has commented 
upon this proceeding (70) this course upon the part 
of the trustees was necessary, as the money essential 
to carry on the enterprise, had to be obtained by pub- 
lic subscriptions which would have been materially 
diminished, had it been understood that it was the 



70. Steven's History of Georgia, Vol. i, p. 102. 



66 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

intention of the trustees to encourage the emigration 
of Jews. This was probably true, and it shows how 
unreasonable and deep-seated was the prejudice at 
that time in England against people of the Jewish 
persuasion, when it was supposed that the prospects 
of a colony, to be composed in a large degree of the 
inmates of jails, would have been injured if Jews were 
allowed to go and settle there. 

General Oglethorpe was a chivalric, high-toned and 
benevolent man, upon whom the arrival of these Jew- 
ish emigrants had a very diflferent eflfect from that it 
had upon his London associates. He regarded them 
as a valuable acquisition, and, before he received 
the letter of the trustees, he had dispatched a letter to 
them commendatory of the new emigrants, dwelling 
upon their good conduct and calling the attention of 
the trustees especially to one of their number, Dr. 
Nunis, for his humane attention to the sick and many 
other valuable services. (71). It would have been ex- 
traordinary, indeed, if he had done otherwise, for as a 
body they were in marked contrast with the other 
settlers, the majority of whom, from their previous 
habits and associations, were practically useless as 
colonists, being idle, dissolute and mutinous, and had 
the settlement of the colony depended upon them, it 
would never have been accomplished. These Jewish 
emigrants, on the contrgiry, were industrious and 
orderly, and had among them several men of high in- 
telligence. (72) One of their number was the princi- 
pal physician; another, Abraham De L,5'on, was a horti- 
culturist, who introduced successfully useful foreign 
plants, and in the cultivation of the vine labored assi- 
duously to make Georgia a grape-growing country ; 

71. Stephens' Journal of Proceedings in Georgia, Vol I., p. 48. 
Stevens' History of Georgia, p. 1 01-104. 

72, Graham's History of North America, Vol. I. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 67 

whilst another was afterwards the principal merchant 
of the colony, having extensive transactions with ^ 
Oglethorpe and the London Company. In fact, had 
it not been for these Jewish emigrants, and the arrival 
afterwards of a congregation of Moravians, and of a 
small body o| Highlanders from Scotland, this philan- 
thropic scheme would have failed in its inception as 
the class for whose benefit it was specially intended, 
would neither labor effectually as agriculturists, nor 
could they be depended on as soldiers, to protect the 
colony from the Spaniards, who threatened its very 
existence. (73) 

Oglethorpe's letter produced but little effect upon 
the London trustees. They expressed their acknow- 
ledgments for the kindness of the good physician, Dr. 
Nunis, in an especially English way, by requesting 
Oglethorpe to give him a proper gratuity for his med- 
ical services, and in adherence to their original reso- 
lution, instructed Oglethorpe to withhold from the 
Jewish residents any grants of land in the province. 
Oglethorpe, probably, did not comply with these in- 
structions, for to have done so, in the language of a 
Georgia historian, would have been to have stripped 
the colony of some of the most worthy and industrious 
of its inhabitants. C74) But that result was in time 
brought about by the unwise policy of not allowing 
the colonists to manage their own affairs, and of 
attempting to govern them exclusively by the will of 
a London corporation. No scheme of colonisation 
was perhaps ever undertaken with more disinterested 

T^. A more detailed account of some of the early experiences of 
the Jews in Georgia was contained in a paper by Col. Charles C, 
Jones, read before the American Jewish Historical Society. But he 
does not appear to have had any knowledge of the Sheftail Mss. 
referred to by Judge Daly at some length. — Editor. 

74. Stevens' History of Georgia, Vol. I , p. 102. 



68 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

motives, or more completely counteracted from want 
of knowledge or judgment in the carrying out of its 
details. It was, in fact, an attempt to revive in the 
primitive forests of America the decaying feudal sys- 
tem of Europe, and being impossible in the settlement 
of a new country, the persistent attempt to carry it 
out had no other effect but to retard the growth of 
the colony. 

Information of a very reliable nature in respect to 
this Jewish emigration to Savannah, has been pre- 
served in the narrative of one of the emigrants, Ben- 
jamin Sheftail, which was continued by his son, Mor- 
decai Sheftail. This narrative contains the names of 
the first emigrants, (75) and the events that occurred 
respecting them and their successors to a period be- 
yond the American Revolution. It appears from this 
narrative that the vessel in which they embarked was 
commanded by Beverly Robinson, that she sustained 
an injury in the River Thames, which involved con- 
siderable delay for repairs; that the passage out was a 
boisterous one, the vessel encountering successive 
gales, by one of which she was nearly wrecked off the 
coast of North Carolina, running into an inlet where 
she was detained several weeks. x\nd this narrative 
differs from the other historical sources of information 
in the statement, that the vessel arrived in Savannah 



75. Their names were as follows: Doctor Nunis, Mrs. Nunis, 
his mother, Daniel Nunis, Moses Nunis, Sipra Nunis, Shem Noah, 
their servant, Isaac Nunez Henriques, his wife, and Shem. their 
son; Raphael Bornal and his wife, David Olivera. Jacob Oiivera, 
and his wife, David and Isaac, their sons, and Leah their daughter, 
Aaron Depivea, Benjamin Gideon, Jacob Costa, David Lopass' 
Depass and wife, Vene Real,- Molena, David Moranda, David 
Cohen, his wife, Isaac, their son Abigail, Hannah and Grace, their 
daughters; Abraham Minis, his wife, and Leah and Esther, their 
daughters, Simeon Minis, the brother of Abraham, Jacob TowelU 
Benjamin Sheftail and wife, and Abraham Delyou. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 69 

on the nth of July, 1733, four days af^er the assign- 
ing of the lots by Oglethorpe to the settlers. (76.) 

Mr. Levi Sheftail, in whose possession the manu- 
script was thirty years ago, states that the writer of 
it, Benjamin Sheftail told his sons, Mordecai and 
Ivcvi, and which they frequently repeated to their 
descendants, that the Jewish emigrants of 1733 paid 
their passage and laid in "all necessary supplies for the 
voyage, so that they were in no wise dependent on the 
favor or charity of the British crown for one dollar to 
facilitate their emigration." This can scarcely be 
correct in view of what occurred in London after 
their departure. Some of them may have done so, 
and Benjamin Sheftail may have been one of that 
number. The truth probably was, as he stated, that 
they were in no wise dependent upon the charity of 
the British crown, for the reason that the money, to 
facilitate the emigration of the whole body, was raised 
by subscription, among their co-religionists, by the 
three persons before named. 

Previous to their departure, articles used in the 
ceremonial service of the synagogue were presented 
to them by a friend in London, and one of their first 
acts after their arrival was to establish a synagogue. 
Constituting as they did nearly one-third of the actual 
settlers they had a large congregation, and according- 
ly they rented a house on the Market Square in Savan- 
nah, for their synagogue, to which they gave the 
name of Mickve (assemblage) Israel, and where 
religious services were regularly held for some years. 
After the establishment of their 'place of worship, 
other articles for the synagogue and a donation of 
books was sent out to them by Benjamin Mendez of 
London. 

With the capacity and the disposition to aid mate- 

76. T/ie Occident, Vol. I. p. 379. 



70 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

rially in the advancement of the colony, they had 
little to encourage them after the final departure of 
Oglethorpe. The Trustees were not only hostile to 
them, but the policy which this body pursued in the 
government of Georgia was detrimental to its progress. 
Placed as they were under civil disabilities, and sub- 
ject with the re.^t of the population to the toolish re- 
strictions imposed by this London company, many of 
them gradually withdrew to South Carolina, where 
no such restrictions existed, and settled in Charleston, 
attracted by the superior commercial advantage of 
that rising city. By the year 1742, their numbers 
were so diminished in »Savannah, that the services in. 
the synagogue had to be discontinued, and at last but 
three families of the original settlers remained : the 
Sheftails, Minises and De Lyons. 

In about a quarter of a century, however, some of 
those who went to Charleston, returned Among 
these was Mordecai Sheftail, described as "a man of 
exemplary piety, who adhered closely to all the rites 
and ceremonies of his faith." In 1773, he gave a 
piece of land for a burial- ground, the mode of con- 
veying which shows the care that was taken to pre- 
vent the land ever being applied to any other use. It 
was conveyed in trust to eight trustees, widely apart 
as follows: Abraham Hart and Joseph Gomperts of 
Loudon, Sampson Simson and Joseph Simson, of 
New York, Isaac Hart and Jacob Riviera, of Newport, 
R. I., and Philip Minis and Levi Sheftail, of Savan- 
nah. It will hav.e been observed in the previous 
course of this narrative, that both in this and the 
preceding century, the Jews are frequently referred 
to as a distinct people, the term commonly applied to 
them being "The Hebrew Nation," which on their 
part, it would seem, they themselves encouraged and 
kept up. The conveyance of this burial-ground to 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 7 1 

trustees living in three cities of this country, where 
their people had settled, and in London, is an indi- 
cation of this feeling. 

Winterbotham, who wrote what he called "An 
Historical and Geographical and Commercial View 
of the United States," a few years afier its separation 
from Great Britain, gives a short account of the Jews 
in the different places in the United States, where 
they had settled, and in speaking of the Jews of 
Charleston, S. C, says: "The Jews in Charleston, 
among other peculiarities, in burying their dead, have 
these: After the funeral dirge is sung, and justb efore 
the corpse is deposited in the grave, the coffin is 
opened, and a small bag of earth, taken from the 
grave, is carefully put under the head of the deceased; 
then some powder, said to be earth hvonght/rom /eru- 
salem, ajid carefully kept for this purpose^ is taken and 
put upon the eyes of the corpse, in token of their 
remembrance of the Holy Land, and of their expecta- 
tions of returning thither in God's appointed time;" 
to which he adds: "The articles of their faith are well- 
known, and, therefore, need no description. They 
generally expect a glorious return to the Holy Land, 
when they shall be exalted above all the nations of 
the earth. And they flatter themselves that the 
period of their return will speedily arrive, though 
tiiey do not pretend to fix the precise time." (77). 

There being, again, in Savannah a sufficient num- 
ber of Jews in 1774 to form a congregation, Mordecai 
Sheftail fitted up a room in his own house for their 
accommodation, where they continued to worship, 
their number being gradually augmented, until the 
breaking out of the American Revolution (78). 

In that struggle the Jews of Savannah aud Charles- 



77. Winterbotham, vol. i. p, 394. 

78. The Occident, vol. i, p. 487. 



72 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

ton joined the Revolutionary paVty, and appear to have 
adhered to it with unwavering fidelity. Sheftail, the 
son of Mordecai, held some military position, and 
fought bravely when the Britishers were repulsed in 
their assault upon Savannah. 

Immediately after the close of the Revolution 
many Israelites arrived in Savannah and made it 
their place of residence. Their numbers being now 
considerably augmented, they re-established their 
congregation on the 7th of July, 1786, having as 
their place of worship a dwelling-house, hired for 
the purpose. On the 30th of November, 1790, a 
charter was obtained, creating Levi Sheftail, Shef- 
tail Sheftail, Cushman Polock, Joseph Abrahams, 
Mordecai Sheftail, Abraham Depass and Emanuel 
De La Motta, and their successors, a religious cor- 
poration, under the name of " The Parnass and 
Adjuntas ofMickva Israel of Savannah" (79). 

The religious exercises of this body were conducted 
for many years by Dr. De La Motta, one of the incor- 
porators, who served gratuitously, and through whose 
exertions a building was erected for a synagogue in 
1820, upon a lot presented by the city. At its con- 
secration a discourse was delivered by Dr. De La 
Motta, which attracted the attention of Thomas Jef- 
ferson and James Madison. Jefferson speaks of it as 
an eloquent production, which excited in him "the 
gratifying reflection that his own country had been 
the first to prove to the world two truths the most 
salutary to human society: that man can govern him- 



79. The officers of the congregation of 1786 were: Phillip 
Minis, Partias ; David N. Cardoza, Gabay ; Levi Sheftail, Cush- 
man Polock, Joseph Abrahams, Adjuntas ; Emanuel De La 
Motta, Hasan ; and Levy Abraiiams, Secretary. The incor- 
porators of 1790 were Levi Sheftail, Sheftail Shettail, Cushman 
Polock, Joseph Abrahams, Mordecai Sheftail, Abraham Depass 
and Emanuel De La Motta. — Editor. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 73 

self, and that religious freedom is the best array done 
against religious discussion." He expressed great 
satisfaction at the restoration of the Jews to their 
social rights, and coupled with a hope that has since 
been realized, that they would soon be found taking 
their position in science preparatory to doing the 
same in government. Madison, in referring to the 
discourse, says, "The history of the Jews must be 
forever interesting. The modern part of it is at the 
same time so little generally known that every light 
on the subject has its value. Among the features 
peculiar to the political system of the United States 
is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to 
every religious sect, and it is particularly pleasing to 
observe in the good citizenship of such as have been 
most distrusted and oppressed elsewhere, a happy 
illustration of the safety and success of this experi- 
ment of a just and beneficent policy." The syna- 
gogue was a small wooden building, exceedingly 
plain in its exterior, which stood alone in a broad, 
open space outside the city, called " The Common," 
but which is now a compact and populated part of 
Savannah. This synagogue was destroyed by fire in 
1829, ^'^^ "^^s replaced by a substantial structure of 
brick. 

I passed a portion of my youth in Savannah forty- 
five years ago, and at that time the Jewish residents, 
as a body, held a position as distinguished, if not 
more so, as any other class of the population* 
They were a recognized part of the aristocracy of the 
city, being, many: of them, the Sheftails, the Minises 
and the De Lyons - direct descendants of the first set- 
tlers, the only kind of aristocracy, if it may be called 
such, that has ever received any recognition in this 
country. There was at that time, and there is still, 
especially in the South, an implied recognition of old 
families, which usually means, in the American sense. 



74 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

those whose ancestors came to this country either 
before or soon after the American Revolution, and who 
have at least sufficient wealth to keep up what is 
required in their social position. The Jews of 
Savannah were nearly all of this class. They had 
not augmented proportionately with the growth of 
the population, for but comparatively few of their 
co-religionists had come to settle in Savannah after 
1799. The families were all within reasonable limits 
wealthy, either through inherited wealth or being 
engaged in pursuits in which wealth gradually is accu- 
mulated. The largest merchant, the leading lawyer 
and the principal ph^^sician of the city at that time 
were of their number, and they continued to main- 
tain this position, for in 1843, the High Sheriff, the 
principal Judge of the city and the Collector of the 
Port, were Jews (80). 

But they had a more substantial claim to the pub- 
lic respect. As a body, they had been uniformly dis- 
tinguished for their probity, their high sense of per- 
sonal honor, their courteous manners and their charity 
and benevolence exercised in relieving the wants of 
their fellow- citizens of all denominations. I recall, 
amid the recollections of that period, Sheftail Shef- 
tail, Esq., the son of Mordecai and the grandson of 
Benjamin, the first settler, then a venerable and most 
striking-looking old man, habited in the garb of 
Franklin— a wide, spread coat, a huge cocked hat, 
knee breeches and large silver buckles on his shoes, 
who was to be seen every day in fine weather, as I have 
seen him, walking with a slow and stately step up and 
down the long piazza of his colonial. built house in 
Broughton Street. 

The Jews who settled in Charleston were more 
prosperous, and their increase in numbers from 



80. The Occident, vol. i, p. 250. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 75 

Europe, New York, and Newport, was much greater 
thau in Savannah. They formed themselves into a 
religious society in 1750, worshiping for seven years in 
a small wooden house iu Union near Queen Street, each 
year bringing an accession to their numbers. They 
purchased a burial ground in 1757, and removed their 
place of worship to a larger building in Kiug Street; 
and finally in 1781, they bought a large brick edifice, 
which they altered into a permanent synagogue. In 
1791, they were incorporated into a religious society, 
and at the time consisted of fifty-one families, number- 
ing in all about 400 persons (81). In two years from 
tins period, they had increased so rapidly that their 
place of worship was found to be too small, and a new 
and more spacious edifice was erected at a cost of 
$20,000, which was consecrated with imposing ceremon- 
ies in 1791. I shall not expand the account of thejews 
in Charleston (82) further than to remark that the 



81. The Occident, Vo!, I, p. 384. 

82. Much interesting information in regard to the Jews of 
Charleston and elsewhere derived from Mr. Isaac Harby is con- 
tained in an article in the North American Review for July, 1826, 
by S. Gilman. While the article deals chiefly with the inception of 
the Reform Movement among the Jews of Charleston, it gives an 
interesting census of the Jews of the United States and other infor- 
mation. He says, for instance : " In Georgia and South Carolina 
several Jews henorably bore arms in the Revolutionary War. My 
natural grandfather contributed pecuniary aid to South Carohna, 
acd particularly to Charleston, when besieged by the British. My 
father-in-law was a brave grenadier in the regular American army, 
and fought and bled for the liberty he lived to enjoy and to hand 
down to his children. Numerous instances of patriotism are 
recorded of such Israelites.'' Mr. Harby estimated the number of 
Jews in the United States in 1826 as 6,oco, divided about as fol- 
lows : New England, 300-400 ; Pennsylvania, 300-400 ; New York, 
950 ; Virginia, 400 ; North Carolina, 400 ; South Carolina, 1,200; 
Georgia, 400; Florida, 30 or 40; Louisiana, ico ; and the re- 
mainder scattering. 

In the series of articles on the Jews of Charleston, which 



76 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

rapid increase of their members, immediately after 
the American Revolution, was owing in a great 
degree to the many Jews who quitted New York after 
that period, and settled in Charleston, as a place 
where their capital and industry would bemoreavail- 
able. They brought wealth and business capacity to 
this southern city, where the Jews continued to be, 
down to the breaking out of the late Civil War, a 
prosperous and influential part of the business com- 
munity. The Charleston Jews of the earlier period 
are described as exceedingly orthodox in their rigid 
conformity to the written and oral laws of their 
religion, severe penalties and forfeiture of the honors 
of the Synagogue being enforced by a supervisory 
body among them somewhat aualogoiis to the cou. 
sistorial courts in Europe. Like their brethren in 
Savannah, they were very charitable, devoting their 
time and means to relieving the sick and indigent. 
They organized and maintained for several }ears an 
institution, and which, for aught I know to the con- 
trary, may still be in existence, devoted to the special 
purpose of relieving sick and destitute strangers in 
Charleston; the members of which, in the language 
of a Charleston writer, ''visited and nursed the sick, 
clothed the naked and buried the dead." 

The Jewish community of Newport received a valu- 
able acquisition in the person of Aaron Lopez, who 
settled there about the year 1750. Possessing, a fine, 
safe and commodious harbor, which can be entered at 
all times without a pilot, and of sufficient depth for 
the largest vessels, Newport had great commercial 

appeared in Vol. I. and II, of The Occident, and to which Judge 
Daly refers, the names of the earliest Jewish settlers are given as 
follows : Moses Cohen, Isaac De Costa, Joseph Tobias, Michael 
Tobias, Moses Pimenta, David de Olivera, Abraham De Costa, 
Mordecai Sheftail, Levy Sheftail, Michael Lazarus and Abraham 
Nunez Cardoza. — Editor. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 77 

advantages, and especially at that period, from its 
proximity to the New England Colonies, then the 
most thickly settled and industrious and active portion 
of North America. The advantages of this important 
seaport were quickly comprehended by this sagacious 
merchant, and to him in a larger degree than to any 
one else was due the rapid commercial development 
that followed, and which made Newport for a quarter 
of a century afterwards the formidable commercial 
rival of New York. (83) He was the means of 
inducing more than forty Jewish families to settle 
there, the heads of many of which were men of 
wealth, mercantile sagacity, high intelligence and 
enterprise. In fourteen years after Mr. L^opez settled 
there, Newport had 150 vessels engaged in trade with 
the West Indies alone, carrying on in addition an 
extensive whaling business, a branch to which its 
merchants and navigators iTad then been devoted for 
more than a century. Its West India trade was especi- 
ally lucrative. Its vessels were freighted in the West 
Indies with molasses, which was brought to Newport, 
and then manufactured into rum for exportation to 
the coast of Africa, the vessels returning from Africa 

83. It is with pleasure ihat I call attention in this connection to 
some remarks by the late George William Curtis, contained in an 
article by him on "Newport Historical and Social'' {Harper'' s 
Monthly Vol. IX. p. 289.) The remark derives much of its force 
from the fact that Rhode Island was Curtis' native State whose 
glories he loved to dwell on, and that the story of Newport was to 
him "so sweet in the telling, that, like Scheherezade, beguiling the 
night, the chronicler would willingly while away the summer with 
his tale,'' to quote his own lines. In the article in question, he as- 
signs three causes for the ante-revolutionary prosperity of New- 
port, the last ot which was "the spirit of entire religious toler- 
ation,which gives to the settlement ot the who'e State,first at Provi- 
dence and then at Newport an historical eminence no less enviable 
than singular. Quakers and Jews were among the earliest settlers 
and the most distinguished and successlul of its citizens."— Ed. 



78 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

with slaves for the West India market. Mr. Lopez> 
-at the breaking^ out of the American Revolution, was 
himself the owner of thirty vessels engaged in Euro- 
pean and West India trade and the whale fisheries, 
;and was then and for some years previously, looked 
upon a.s the most eminent and successful merchant in 
New England. His father-in-law, Jacob Rodriguez- 
Rivera, also a native of Portugal^ came to Newport 
.a few years before, about 1745, and was the first 
merchant there of the Jewish persuasion of any dis- 
tinction ; for the Jews who settled in Newport pre- 
viously were not persons of any especial prominence. 

Mr. Rivera was the first person who introduced the 
manufacture of spermaceti in America, having 
brought the art with him from Portugal. Acquainted 
with the mode of making this valuable commodity, lie 
was naturally attached to Newport, the inhabitants 
of which were then actively engaged in the whale 
fishery, and by the introduction of the manufacture 
of this article he justly contributed to the prosperity 
vof the place. He and his son-in-law, Mr. Lopez, 



84. Peterson's History of Rhode Island, (pp. 180- 181:) I have 
received through Charles R. Russell, Esq., of New York, the 
following- memorandum of the names of Jews known to have been 
in Newport in the sevententh century, made by N. H. Gould, Esq., 
of Newport, a gentleman the best informed there on the subject. 
Memo.: Samuel Isaac and Judah Moses, soap boilers; Moses and 
Jacob James, wc»r/?'^rj in brass; Isaac Benjamin, Abraham Ben- 
jamin, Isaac Moses and Jacob Frannc, or Franci, merchants and 
traders, how long they remained here I have no information, JacoD 
and Joseph Judah ; Benjamin and Moses Myers, Naphtali M)-ers 
Isaac and Nathan Lyon, David Salomon, Abraham Jacobs, 
Solomon Mendez, Solomon Cohen, Nathan Cohen, Aaron Cohen 
Isaac Cohen, and among the earliest Lodge of Freemasons were 
ihe following Israelites : Isaac Isaacs, money broker, Solomon 
Aaron Myers, Joseph Jacobs, Abraham Mendez, Eleazar Eleazar, 
JVIoses Isaacs, and Isaac Eleazar. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 79 

united in introducing this important branch of 
industry, and so successfully, that there were at one 
time no less than seventeen manufacturers of oil and 
candles; and Newport enjoyed the monopoly of this 
traffic down to the time of the breaking out of the 
American Revolution. Mr. Rivera resided at New- 
port for forty -four years. He died there in 1789, at 
an advanced age, and throughout his long and use- 
ful career, was distinguished for his probity and active 
benevolence. In his first attempt to establish himself 
there in business, he met with so many losses that 
he was obliged to compromise with his creditors, and 
obtain from them a release from his debts. In a very 
few years, having retrieved his affairs, he invited all 
his former creditors to dine with him, when each 
creditor found under his plate an order for the pay- 
ment of the amount that had been released, together 
with interest. In addition to his integrity, he is said 
to have been most exemplary in the observance of all 
the rites, duties and obligations of his religion. 

In 1763, there were between sixty and seventy 
Jewish families in Newport, the greater portion of 
whom came from Spain and Portugal, between the 
years 1750 and 1760. The terrible earthquake in 
Lisbon in 1755, which swallowed up 50,000 of the 
inhabitants in the short space of eight minutes, and 
converted that beautiful city into a mass of ruins, 
increased the Jewish emigration from Portugal to New- 
port, and what is now in Newport the north side of 
the Mall, was then covered with Jewish resi-'^^'Tces. 
They were, in fact, the chief persons of the place, for, 
besides lyOpez and Rivera, there were many other 
Jewish merchants there, men of wealth, cultivation, 
intelligence and enterprise, and the commercial pros- 
perity^which they so materially contributed to bring 
about, was due not only to their remarkable capacity 
and industry, but to the confidence inspired by their 



80 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

scrupulous integrity and delicate sense of mercantile 
honor. It was this latter quality that gave them 
great power and influence in their widespread opera- 
tions in different quarters of the globe, and enabled 
them to draw so many sources of wealth to the little 
seaport town which they had settled as their home 
and place of business. (85) 



85, In Vol. IV, p. 456 of the Magazine of American History, 
is found a paragraph taken from the Neiuport Mercury, z.s follows: 
"In 1658, fifteen Hebrew families from Holland arrived at New- 
port, R. I., and brought with them the first thiee degrees of 
Masonry." The same statement, in identically the same language 
is contained in Dr. Fischel's "Chronological Notes on the History 
of the Jews in America," in the Historical Magazine, referred 
to in a former note. 

But the most detailed account of the history of the Jews of 
Newport known tome is to be found in an interesting article by 
H. T. Tuckerman on " Graves at Newport" {Harper'^s Monthly, 
Vol. 39, p. 372). I glean the following from it : " On the 24th of 
August, 1694, a ship arrived at Newport, R. I., then the principal 
port of entry, from one of the West India Islands, with a number 
of Jewish families on board, of wealth and respectability, who 
settled there. In a few years a congregation of sixty worshiped 
in the synagogue, which at length boasted 1,175 worshipers. 
Gradually migrating to new States, not a resident Jew is now 
(1869) found in Newport — only their sepulchres remain." 

"After the terrible earthquake at Lisbon, a company of Jews em- 
barked thence for America ; their precise destination was not set- 
tled, and the captain of the vessel on board of which they were 
passengers intended to land them on the Virginia coast. Adverse 
and violent winds led him to seek refuge in Narragansett Bay. 
Allured by the tolerant laws and spirit of Newport, the Israelite 
emigrants determined to remain there. Other Jewish emigrants 
from the West Indies and elsewhere followed their Portuguese 
brethren to Newport ; and in 1763, when sixty families had settled 
there, the synagogue was erected." 

It appears that in 1750 Moses Lopez was excused at his own re- 
quest from all civil duties on account of his gratuitous services to 
the Government in translating Spanish documents. We also read 
that " in the early days of the Lopez establishment, his employees 
went out in boats and captured whales off the coast. Moses Lopez 



TEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 8 1 

Before the arrival of these enterprising merchants 
and their families, the religious exercises of the Jew- 
ish residents —their number being small— were con. 
ducted in private houses (86). But their number had 
now become large, and in 1762 the erection of a syna- 
gogue was begun, which was completed and dedicated 
in the following year, with great pomp and ceremony. 
Two years previously, in 1760, a learned young man 
from Jamaica, in the West Indies, came here, the Rev. 
Isaac Touro, who was chosen by the congregation as 
its rabbi, and under his teaching the syuagogiTe con- 
tinued to be crowded with worshipers until the break- 
ing out of the American Revolution(87). It has already 
been stated that a burial ground was obtained in 1677. 
In that year a plot of laud was conveyed for that pur- 



at one time owned twenty-seven square-rigged vessels, and his 
correspondence indicates large and honorable commercial rela- 
tions. Dr. .Stiles loved to stroll along the Parade, discussing some 
point of Oriental wisdom with the learned Rabbi Isaac Carigal." 
As for the spermaceti oil and candle factory referred to In the 
text, our author states that " it was the first experiment of the 
kind in the colonies and was long a monopoly here, and no incon- 
siderable source of wealth. From Newport the enterprise was 
earned to New Bedford. " The war of the Revolution disperse«l 
the Jewish merchants. Their ships were nearly all taken by the 
enemy.'' 

Longfellow's beautiful poem, "The Jewish Cemetery at New- 
port,'' will be read with renewed interest in the light of these 
facts. — Editor. 

86. Peterson, p. 181. 

87. Rabbi Touro married a sister of Moses Hays, one of the 
Jewish merchants, and afterwards a very eminent merchant in 
Boston. The Rabbi was not only held in high regard by his own 
congregation, but was esteemed by his professional brethren of 
all denominations. With several he was upon terms of close in- 
timacy, among whom may be named the celebrated Dr. Stiles, the 
President of Yale College, to whom he imparted a knowledge o^ 
the Hebrew tongue. 



8* JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

pose to Mordecai Campannal and Moses Packeckoe, 
which still exists, and as it is now enclosed, with its 
handsome wall and its Egyptian architectural gate- 
way» is a conspicuous feature in Newport. 

An event occurred in the year of the erection of the 
synagogue, 1762, which shows how readily prosperous 
communities may forget the liberal principles upon 
which they were founded, when the accumulation of 
wealth creates the desire to become aristrocatic and 
exclusive. Both Rhode Island and Maryland started 
with the broadest recognition of the rights of con- 
science as the prerogative and privilege of all who 
should settle there; and yet, in little more than a 
century, che one construed these rights as applying 
only to Christians, and the other as extending only to 
Christians of a particular denomination. When the 
Jews in 1684 applied to the Assembly in Rhode Island, 
they received the public assurance of that body, that 
they might expect as good protection in that colony 
as any other resident foreigners, (88) which was sub- 
stantially declaring that n6 distinction would be made 
upon the ground of religion. In 1762, Aaron Lopez 
and Isaac Eleazar, being foreigners, applied for natur- 
alization, which was granted, but afterwards set aside 
by a decree of the Superior Court as a direct violation 
of the Act of Parliament (13 of George II.,) they being 
Jews. The New England colonies at that time, 



88. Arnold's History of Rhode Island, p. 478. 

Editor's note: "Voted, in answer to the petition of Simon Medus 
David Brown and associates, being Jews, presented to this assem- 
bly, bearing date June the 24th, 1684, we declare, that they may 
expect as good protection here, as any stranger, being not of our 
nation, residing amongst us in this his Majesty's Colony ought to 
have, being obedient to his Majesty's laws." Proceedings of the 
General Assembly for the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, June 24th, 1682 — Bartlett's Colonial Records of Rhode 
Island, III. p. 160. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 83 

1762, aud during the fourteen years that intervened 
before the Declaration of Independence, did not 
trouble themselves much about the Acts of Parlia- 
ment where they conflicted with their interests, or 
what they considered their rights, aud even in this 
case the courts were not willing to put their decision 
upon the Act of Parliament alone, but proceeded to 
declare that, by the charter of Rhode Island, the free 
and quiet enjoyment of the Christian religion and the 
desire of propagating it were the principal views with 
which the colony was settled. This Arnold, the his-" 
torian of Rhode Island, says was untrue (89), and the 
Court if they knew anything of the early history, 
knew it to be so. Probably conscious that this would 
not bear examination, they added another ground in- 
voking the authority of the Act of Parliament, but 
construing it in a colonial sense, which was this : 
They declared that the Naturalization Act was de- 
signed for increasing the number of inhabitants, but 
as the colony was already full, it could not be the 
intention of the Act that any more should be natural- 
ized, and consequently the naturalization of Messrs. 
Lopez and Eleazar was set aside. The two applicants 
had been residents of Rhode Island for many years 
before this, and admitting them to the privileges of 
freemen was not increasing then umber of inhabitants, 
but thefact was that Rhode Island theu, and for many 
years after it was an independent State, was a close 
corporation in which the proportion of freemen was 
not more than one in ten; a spirit of exclusiveness 
which was maintained in that State until it led in 
1842, to what was known as Dorr's Rebellion, an act 
for which he was convicted of high treason, but which 
ultimately brought about the adoption of a more 
liberal constitution. 

89. Arnold p. 496- 



84 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

But the exclusion of the Jews from political privi- 
leges was not left to depend upon this judicial deci- 
sion, and an act was passed in 1763 providing that no 
person who did not profess the Christian religion could 
be admitted free of the colony. 

This was repudiating the act of 1652, that all men 
of whatever nation that were received as inhabitants 
of any of the towns, should hav^e the same privileges 
as Englishmen, and the assurance given to the Jews 
particularly in 1684. Arnold says (90) that though 
the charter granted religious freedom, it did not con- 
fer political rights ; but religious freedom can scarcely 
be said to exist when a man's religious belief is the 
ground upon which he is deprived of political rights. 
This illiberal course on the part of the governing 
classes in Rhode Island in no way affected the position 
of the Jews in Newport, or diminished the respect in 
which they were held in that town. They probably 
attached little value to the political privileges so jeal 
ously withheld, when they were not interfered with in 
the prosecution of their commercial pursuits, or dis- 
turbed in the practice of their religion, and, having 
the support and co-operation of their fellow-townsmen 
in their extensive mercantile operations, they not only 
increased in wealth themselves, but added to the 
wealth and prosperity of the community of which they 
were such valuable members. 

The breaking out of the American Revolution put 
an end to the commercial prosperity of Newport. Its 
situation upon the ocean, which had made it before 
so favorable for commerce, had now an opposite effect, 
and left it more exposed to attacks from the enemy 
than any other place of equal importance in North 
America. Not only was its situation one of the most 



90. I Arnold, 496. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 85 

exposed, but its inhabitants had especially provoked 
the hostility of the mother country, as it was one of 
the first places to manifest a spirit of resistance to the 
arbitrary acts of the British government by burning 
an armed vessel of war that came to exact an odious 
tax. In the then infuriated state of the British mind 
it could expect no mercy, and it received none. 8,000 
British and Hessian troops occupied it, who destroyed 
480 houses, burned the shipping, and during an 
occupation of three years cut down the groves and 
orchards, pillaged the library, then the finest in Amer- 
ica, and carried off the town records. From this blow 
its commercial interests never recovered, and as the 
property and wealth of the Jewish residents was in- 
vested in, and formed part of the commercial capital 
of the place, the blow fell upon them with crushing 
eflfect. Aaron Lopez was a heavy sufferer, not only 
from what took place at Newport, but by the seizure 
of his vessels upon distant voyages, and by the dete- 
rioration of those that remained to him, by their being 
laid up for safety during the long continuance of the 
war. 

The Jewish congregation being dispersed, the 
synagogue was closed, and Rabbi Touro went with 
his family to Jamaica, in the West Indies, where he 
died on the 8th of December, 1782, at the age of 
forty-six }ears. He left two sons, both of whom 
afterwards became very eminent merchants, Abra- 
ham D. Touro, who settled in Boston, where he died 
in 1823, leaving a very large estate ; and Jacob Touro, 
who went to Louisiana after its session to the United 
States, and became one of the wealthiest merchants 
of New Orleans. 

When the struggle drew to a close, most of the 
Jewish residents had left Newport. Impoverished 
by the loss of their property, they sought other place 



86 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

in which to retrieve their shattered fortunes, and never 
returned. Aaron Lopez had retired with his family 
to Leicester, Mass., when the British army took pos- 
session of Newport, and remained there until 1782- 
The struggle was now practically over and he set out, 
intending to return and resume his business opera- 
tions in Newport, but was destined never to see that 
town again. Whilst upon this journey with his 
family, on the 28th of May, 1782, he drove his carriage 
to the side of a pond to water his horses, resting upon 
what proved to be a quicksand, which giving way, 
horse, vehicle and inmate suddenlv sunk to such a 
depth, as to render his rescue impossible. His body 
was afterwards recovered and brought to Newport, 
where it was interred in the Jewish cemetery, with 
every mark of public respect. Charles H. Russell 
Esq., to whom I am indebted for many particulars of 
the Jews of Newport, in detailing the accident by 
which this excellent man lost his life, writes : "Thus 
was removed in the meridian of life one of the most 
eminent and useful merchants that Newport ever 
had. His death, at the period it took place, may be 
considered as one of the greatest misfortunes that ever 
befel the town. Cut off as he was, prep ;ring to renew 
his various enterprises, there can be no doubt from 
his extensive business relations, that had he lived, he 
would speedily have retrieved his losses and greatly 
contributed to revive the business and trade of the 
place. He was a man of eminent probity and benevo- 
lence. His bounties were widely diflfused. They 
were not confined to creed or sect, and the people of 
Newport for more than half a century continued to 
venerate his memory." (91) 



91. Considerable additional details about the Jews of Newport 
are to be found in ' History of the Jews of Boston and New Eng- 
land " edited by A. G. Daniels. Boston, 1892. The author of the arti- 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 87 

After the Revolution, a few families remained, and 
the services at the syiiagog^ue were continued until 
about the year 1790. The superior advantages of 
New York as the commercial centre and chief seaport 
of the country, became apparent upon the organiza- 
tion of the general government after the adoption of 
the Constitution of the United States, and as New 
York rose in commercial rank and importance, New- 
port steadily declined. 

To the Jewish mind there is little or no attraction 
in a place, the trade of which is passing away, for 
the Jews have been for centuries a trading ?nd com- 
mercial people. They are not without local attach- 
ment for the particular spot in which they have set- 
tled, and those whoare past middle age may linger in 
the decline of its prosperity, but the young depart. As 
a people, they have dwelt almost exclusively in towns 
or larger cities for the reason that, except tor a period 
comparatively recent, scarcely any other pursuits were 
opened to them, except those which were directly con- 
nected with trade or commerce.. In most European 
countries in which they have dwelt, they have gener- 
ally been denied the privilege of owning land, or, if 
permitted to hold it, it has been subject to such capri- 
cious and oneious exactions, as to prevent them from 
becoming agricuUurists. They were equally shu 
out from mechanical pursuits. The mechanical arts 
were in Europe for centuries carried on under the 
supervision and control of guilds or corporations, who 
permitted none but those who were allowed to enter 
the organization to acquire a knowledge of or to prac- 
tice them, and from their bodies Jews were almost uni- 

cle has, however, failed to give the authority for his statements, and 
this fact, which is equally true of Markens' "Hebrews in America," 
renders the work unsatisfactory and unreliable, for incorrect 
statements are joined with correct ones.—EoiTOR. 



88 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

formly excluded. Even after the system of guilds 
was abandoned, Jews were uot allowed even in so lib- 
eral a country as Holland, to engage in mechanical 
employments. By the municipal regulations of towns, 
they were usually excluded alike from being mechan- 
ics, or from keeping shops for the sale of goods by re- 
tail. So stringent and uniform were these regulations, 
that they were of necessity confined to migratory 
trading, which among the poorer class would be ped- 
dling or the loaning and exchange of money, and 
the larger operations of commerce. To all this should 
be added that in many of these countries, and for 
centuries, they were subject at any time to be stripped 
of their wealth, or, as not unfrequently happened, to 
be suddenly expelled from the territory of the king, 
or government, in a body with the power of taking 
nothing with them but their movables. Under such 
circumstances, there was little to attach them to the 
particular country where they were bon\ or dwelt, or 
to create towards it, either in their own estimation or 
in that of others, what is expressed by the word nation- 
ality. There have been exceptional instances in 
European history, such as the period of the German- 
ic Empire, under Charlemagne; thedominion of Spain 
by the Moors; Italy at intervals, and for a considerable 
period Poland and Holland; but in most countries they 
were subject to the disabilities above stated. 

This policy, which was designed for their conver- 
sion or extirpation, produced an efiect the very oppo- 
site of what was intended. Itmade them more cohe- 
sive and cosmopolitan, co-operating, acting and sym- 
pathizing with each other, however widely separated 
or extensively distributed, throughout the globe. 

Shutting them out from all othervocations and con- 
fining them to trade and commerce, was to turn their 
capacity and energies to pursuits for which, as an 
acute, thrifty and intellectual people they proved to 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 89 

be particularly adapted. From their cosmopolitan 
character they obtained a clearer insight and more 
enlarged views of what was requisite to promote trade 
in the intercourse between different countries, and to 
their comprehensiveness, quickness and sagacity is 
due in a large degree the discovery of the methods by 
which trade is facilitated and commercial transactions 
carried on at the present day. 

The devotion of a whole race, widely distributed in 
different countries, to trade and commerce, especially 
when modern commerce was in its infancy, brought 
about results alike favorable to them and to the world. 
It gave them influence and power, and in the changes 
which commerce has effected — the intercourse it has 
promoted, the prejudice it has swept away and the 
advance in civilization that has followed it— they 
have played a more important part than has ever been 
adequately acknowledged. 

The younger branches of the few families that re- 
mained in Newport, departed for other places, and 
settled chiefly in New York, Philadelphia, Charleston 
and Savannah. As no addition was made to the small 
Jewish population it was gradually diminished by 
death, until at last Moses Lopez, the nephew of Aaron, 
was the sole remaining Jew in Newport. Even he 
left and closed his days in New York, from whence 
his body was brought and interred in the Jewish cem- 
etery, where the remains of his relations reposed. 

He is said to have been a man of remarkable cap- 
acity, distinguished for his acquirements as a mathe- 
matician, his mechanical skill and his conversational 
powers. As a man of business he was noted for his 
uprightness, and is said to have been particularly 
earnest in his religious belief. His kinsman, Aaron 
Lopez, for many years the head and confidential clerk 
of the largest mercantile house in Newport, was 
affectionately regarded by his fellow townsmen of 



90 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

all denominations for his scrupulous integrity and 
interesting personal character. To these two excel- 
lent men should be added another of their represent- 
ative survivors, a man familiarly known to all in 
Newport and gieatly respected : Moses Seixas, the 
cashier of the Bank of Rhode Island. 

The synagogue, after being closed for sixty years, 
was opened for public worship upon a single occasion 
in 1850, by a rabbi from New York. Abraham D. 
Touro, who, it will be remembered died in Boston in 
1822, bequeathed by his will the sum of $10,000, as 
a fund for the perpetual reparation and maintaining 
of the synagogue, and $5,000 for keeping the street 
in front of it and of the burial ground, now known as 
Touro Street, in repair. The remaining son of the 
rabbi, Judah Touro, of New Orleans, in .'843, at an 
expense of $12,000, had the crumbling brick wall of 
the burial ground replaced by a substantial stone 
structure, the massive and imposing granite gateway 
of which, in the Egyptian style of architecture, is a 
conspicuous feature of Newport. It was but one of 
the many benefactions of this eminent philantiiropist 
who, having amassed a fortune during a long life of 
sagacious enterprise as a merchant, bestowed the 
greater part of it upon public institutions and char- 
ities. 

It has been mentioned that his uncle, Moses Hays, 
removed to Boston after the breaking out of the 
Revolution, and under his supervision Touro's life 
was passed at that place until his twenty-third year, 
when he went upon a voyage to the Mediterranean, as 
a supercargo of one of his uncle's ships. During the 
voyage the vessel was attacked by a French privateer, 
which resulted in a desperate conflict, and, what 
rarely happens in such encounters, Touro's ship 
came off victorious. In 1802, he went to New Orleans, 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 9 1 

where he passed the remainder of his life in alon g 
and highly honorable mercantile career. He fought 
in defense of New Orleans, under General Jackson, in 
I815, receiving a wound from a cannon ball, from the 
effects of which he never entirely recovered. Through- 
out his life, he was noted for bis liberality and benev- 
olence, contributing largely to charities, public in- 
stitutions, and various enterprises, among which 
should be mentioned the donation of a very valuable 
lot of ground in New Orleans, for the erection of a 
Christian Church, He died there in 1854, at the 
advanced age of 79 years. Among other bequests he 
left $80,000 to found an almshouse in New Orleans ; 
$65,000 to the Hebrew congregations in that city; and 
smaller bequests to New York, Boston, Newport, 
New Haven, Hartford, Charleston and Savannah : 
$10,000 to the Society for the Relief of the Indigent 
Jews in Palestine; $50,000 for ameliorating the condi- 
tion of the Jews in the Holy L-and; $10,000 to the 
Jewish Hospital in New York; $10,000 to the Massa- 
chusets Female Hospital ; and smaller bequests to 
the Female Asylum and tlie Boy's Asylum in Boston. 
Nor was his native city forgotten. Among other 
benefactions to Newport he left $10,000 for the pur- 
chase of the antiquarian relic there known as the "Old 
Mill," supposed at one time to have been erected by 
the Norsemen, and the ground surrounding it, which> 
as now devoted to the public use, has been appro- 
priately named " Touro Square." His body was 
removed from New Orleans to Newport, and rests in 
the cemetery there with the remains of his father and 
kindred. At the period of his death he had no known 
relations. His father came from Holland, and as the 
name would indicate, was probably a descendant of 
the Jews from Portugal, who sought and found a 
refuge in that tolerant land. 



92 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

A large part of the fund left by these two brothers 
was designed not on"*)^ for keeping the synagogue iu 
continued repair, but a portion of it was specially 
intended for theannual support of a rabbi or minister. 
But there is no rabbi as there are no worshipers, and 
the interest upon the fund is year by year added to 
the principal. Newport from its salubrity, the beauty 
of its scenery, and the advantages it has for sea-bath- 
ing, became as its commerce declined, a place of 
resort for persons from all parts of the United States, 
during the heated months of the American summer, 
and is now, with its spacious hotels and streets of 
suburban villas, one of the most attractive and pro- 
minent watering places in America. It is sought 
alike by the pleasure-seekers, the votary of fashion, 
and those in pursuit of health ; and among the mingled 
crowds that gather there in summer, there are doubt- 
less Israelites. No one, however, known to be of the 
Hebrew persuasion, is found among the resident 
inhabitants; but the synagogue and cemetery remain, 
and through the fund erected for that purpose, will 
continue as permanent memorials of the Jews of 
Newport. 

In 1819, a Mr. W. D. Robinson printed and circu- 
lated a pamphlet in London, entitled "Memoir, ad- 
dressed to Persons of the Jewish Religion in Europe, 
on the subject of Emigration and Settlement in the 
United States of North America." The object of this 
publication was to induce the wealthier Jews in 
Europe to unite in a fund for the purchase of a large 
tract of land in the upper Mississippi and Missouri 
Territory to which the poorer classes of Jews through- 
out Europe might be sent to found an agricultural 
settlement. The plan was to ofTer to each Jewish 
emigrant a certain number of acres upon a credit for 
a specific number of years ; to convey the emigrants 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 93 

free of expense from Europe to New Orleans and then 
by the way of the Mississippi River to the place of 
settlement, to transport thither agricultural imple- 
ments of every description, to be sold to the settlers 
on credit, and to establish rules and regulations for 
the general interest of the settlement and the reim- 
bursement of the capital. The assurance is held out 
to the subscribers of the fund, that they will not only 
be rewarded by the grateful thanks of the settlers, 
but that as an investment it would ultimately prove 
of greater advantage and magnitude than any other 
mode by which funds could then be invested in 
Europe. The motive of the writer purports to be a 
benevolent one, and to have been induced by the op- 
pressed and wretched condition then, ofthe great bulk 
of the Jews in Europe. I apprehend, however, that 
the writer, who styled himself in his title page "a 
citizen of the United States, " was what is known in 
this country as a land speculator; for he takes occasion 
to inform his Jewish readers that there were then for 
private sale large tracts in the two sections he referred 
to, embracing several millions of acres adjacent to the 
Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The Jews in Europe, 
who had accumulated wealth, were not of the class to 
instruct upon the subject of investing their capital. 
They were then, and have always been, far in advance 
of others in the knowledge of the means by which 
money can be turned to the best account. However 
desirous they might be to advance the interests and 
elevate the condition of their poor co-religionists, 
there was nothing in this scheme to commend it to 
them. It was in fact totally impracticable. 

The Jews in Europe were not, and had not for centur- 
ies been, either artists or agriculturists, and to have 
transported a large number of these people, wholly 
unacquainted with the mechanical or agricultural 



94 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

arts, to a wilderness in America, to found a Jewish 
agricultural settlement, would have been a disastrous 
failure, like many analogous attempts in the early 
settlement of the United States. But the interested 
or enthusiastic Mr. Robinson, at the end of his pamph- 
let, held out the anticipation of a very different result 
from the adoption of his scheme. He presented the 
alluring picture, to use his own language, "of Jewish 
agriculture spreading through the American forests; 
Jewish towns and villages adornino the banks of the 
Mississippi and the Missouri," and that "the arts, 
commerce and manufactures, would advance with the 
same rapidity in this new settlement, as had been ex- 
emplified in the agricultural regions of the United 
States." "Were I," he concludes, ''to draw a picture 
of all the highly important consequences wliich sug- 
gest themselves to my mind, on this subject, I fear I 
might be called a speculative enthusiast." His fears 
were realized. The scheme evidently made no im- 
pression upon the shrewd, experienced and practical 
men, the wealthy Jews of Europe, to whom it was 
especially addressed ; for nothing came of it. 

Certain portions of this pamphlet, however, are 
interesting, which relate to the condition of the Jews 
in Europe, sixty years ago, the extent of their emi- 
gration then to the United States, and the prospect 
this country held out to them. He pertinently re- 
marks that among the immense variety and number 
of emigrants who had then come to the United States, 
either in the pursuit of gain or forpolitical or reli- 
gious reasons, very few had been of the Jewish persua- 
sion, which he says, had arisen from a variety of 
causes. He remarks that the education and general 
habits of the Jews in Europe have fixed them in com- 
mercial cities and towns. That those who have ac- 
quired wealth live in luxurious magnificence and 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 95 

"consider Europe the only proper theatre on which 
they can exist and flourish. " That those who have 
emigrated to the United States have been in general 
of the opulent class and pursue the avocation of their 
class in Europe ; that they were then (1819) the chief 
stock and money brokers in all the large cities of the 
United States and that it was rare to find one who 
was an artisan, and still more rate to see any who 
were agriculturists, or following rural occupations. 

"The habitual propensity of the Jews," he says, "to 
engage in any other pursuits than agriculture, does 
not arise from the want of physical or moral energy, 
or any inherent aversion to cultivate the soil; but it is 
the effect of long continued social and political dis- 
abilities which has made it a matter of necessity with 
them for centuries, to limit themselves to avocations 
which can be pursued in cities and towns. If 
disposed to follow agriculture as a means of subsist- 
ence they are deterred by imperious difficulties, the 
chief of which in European countries has been the 
uncertainty that has' attended their social and 
political state. 

"If a Jew," he continues, "retires into the couiitry, 
though surrounded by neighbors, he feels himself to 
be an isolated being, for he is cut off by existing pre- 
judices from that social intercourse which is the chief 
felicity of man. Those who surround him deride or 
pity him. He has no synagogue that he can enter 
to adore his God according to the faith of his fathers, 
and therefore the constant disposition to live in cities 
or towns, where he can associate with his own creed 
and resort to a temple of worship, where he can fulfil 
what he conscientiously believes to be his religious 
obligations. How much worse," he adds, "is the con- 
dition of the poorer class surrounded by poverty and 
scorn , constituting no recognized link of the general 



96 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

boud that holds society together, and uncertain of 
reaping the precarious fruits of their personal indus- 
try. Hence is it, that the situation of that class iu 
Europe is so abject and wretched We behold them 
carrying on the most menial occupations to gain a 
livelihood, and the means by which they gain it, 
besides being very precarious, do not suffice to furnish 
their families with more than a wretched pittance, 
and yet they are found under all these disabilities, to 
be an industrious, abstemious and persevering race of 
people. "To what part of the habitable globe," lie says 
"can the Jews fly for an asylum, where will they be 
exempt from persecution and oppression ? No part 
of Europe offers to them a secure or convenient 
refuge; nor can they seek it in Asia or Africa," and 
then remarks that the United States of North Ameri- 
ca, where the field for enterprise is immense, which is 
the only government among civilized nations that has 
wisely rejected any exclusive establishment, and 
where neither sectnor individual is molested on account 
of religion, is the only country upon earth that affords 
to them the means of regeneration, of security and 
comfort. (92) 

Since these pages were written, thousands of Israel- 
ites who never read or heard of Mr Robinson's pam- 
phlet, have quitted Europe and made the United 
States the home of themselves and of their posterity. 
In no country, except in France previously, had the 
same rights been conceded to them, in none had such 
a field been opened to them for individual exertion, 



92. It would be interesting to learn how far, if at all this 
influenced Mordecai Noah in the formation of his scheme very soon 
afterwards of founding a Hebrew colony on Grand Island, in 
Niagara River. A detailed and very interesting account of this 
scheme will be found in Judge Daly's Supplementary Chapter, — 
Editor. 



THE JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 97 

and in none have they in an equal period of time, 
augmented so rapidly. There are and have been for 
along time, wealthier Israelites in Europe than in the 
United States, but in the Uniced States material 
prosperity has been more widely diffused among 
them. 

It is now nearly a century since the breaking out 
of the American Revolution, and duriwg the whole 
of that time, Jews have enjoyed in nearly every State 
in the Union the same rights as all other citizens. 
For more than half a century the last vestige has dis- 
appeared in any State that made a distinction in its 
laws between them and others. This policy upon 
the part of the government of the United States and 
oftheseveralStates, has not only been beneficial to the 
Israelites and to the country that inaugurated it, but 
it lias reacted upon Europe, and as a consequence of 
it, in most European countries nearly every restric- 
tion upon them has been swept away. 

It has been remarked of the Jews that though 
hitherto retaining in all countries the characteristics 
of a distinct race, they have nevertheless imbibed and 
felt the nationality of the country where they were 
born or dwelt. Thus a French Jew is essentially a 
Frenchman, as a German Jew is essentially a German, 
or an English Jew, in appearance, feeling, and pre- 
judice, is an Englishman. This is even more marked 
n this country, for none are more devoted to the 
Republican government of the United States than its 
Jewish citizens. 

The Jews in the United States are estimated at 
about 300,000) in 1872), and something over one- third 
are assumed to be of native birth. As they enjoy here 
all the privileges of other citizens, as their children are 
educated in the public schools with the children of 
other denominations, and as in the cities they mingle 



98 THE JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

coustantly with all classes of their fellow citizeus, in 
the relation of business and socially, it might be sup- 
posed that everything which marks them as a separate 
and distinct people would, under such circumstances, 
disappear. But this is a slow progress. Usages, cus- 
toms and habits survive the causes that produced 
them, and that this assimilation does no4 lake place 
as rapidly as might be inferred from these favorable 
influences, is due, not so much to any antagonism on 
the part of the people here or other denominations, as 
to the fact that the religious belief of the Jews is deep- 
ly incorporated with the family life; and thoughts, 
habits and feelings, that draw their vitality, as in the 
case of the Jews, from what has been recognized 
and adhered to in the family for centuries, are 
uot easily given up. What is inculcated by the par- 
ents upon the child, as especially appertaining to the 
family to which he belongs, the child will very natur- 
ally when a man inculcate upon his offspring. A race 
so widely distiibuted over the globe, and so terribly 
persecuted in the past, owes its preservation and 
continuance as a connected body in a very large degree 
to what was cherished, maintained and inculcated in 
the family. The laws and the prejudices which have 
hitherto unjustly separated the Jews from the rest of 
society, have drawn them in closer communion with 
each other, and made the family with them both a 
social unit and a religious tie. Living essentially 
within themselves, they have never sought proselytes, 
nor sought to ally themselves with those who differ in 
race or creed. It is very remarkable that, whether 
living under free or despotic governments ; whether 
suffering under restrictions which have isolated them 
as a separate or despised class, or born or dwelling in 
countries where there are no such restrictions and 
where they enjoy equally with others every individual 



THE JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 99 

and political right ; they still keep up their distinct 
characteristics; as a general rule, abstaining from con- 
necting themselves by marriage with those who are 
not of their own denomination, as if instinctively 
avoiding to mingle their blood with other races. In 
France, since 1798, there has been nothing in the laws 
or in the course of the government, to distinguish them 
from other Frenchmen ; on the contrary, some of the 
most prominent men who have filled important posi- 
tions in the French government, have been Jews, In 
the city of New York, for certainly one hundred 
years, the law has made no distinction on account of 
their religion, and in other cities of the United States, 
such as Philadelphia, Charleston, Savannah and 
Richmond, they have, at least since the American 
Revolution, enjoyed every privilege accorded to other 
citizens. But in all these cities, during this long 
period of time, as well as. in France, there has been no 
marked change in this respect. The marriaj^e of a 
Jew with a Christian is at the present day in the City 
of New York, almost as unusual and exceptional a 
circumstance as it was in the middle of the last cen- 
tury. Whether this will continue, or whether in 
countries where, as in France and the United States, 
the liberalizing effect of institution and the social and 
political equality, they aie designed to bring about,will 
in time sweep away all distinctions, and produce a 
thorough co-mingling of the Israelites with other ra- 
ces, is one of those problems of the future, in respect 
to which no writer, in view of the historical past, is 
justified in expressing an opinion. 



CONTINUATION IN 1893. 

When I augmented my Address upon the Settlement 
of the Jews in North America, by the publication. of 
a series of articles in the Jewish Times^ it was my 
intention to close with an account of the settlement of 
the Jews in Richmond, Virginia, but I deferred , the 
preparation of the final article, as the Rev. Jacques J. 
Lyons, who had been for a few years the minister of 
the synagogue Beth Sholom in Richmond, and was 
then in charge of the oldest Jewish congregation in 
this city, called upon me and manifesting great interest 
in ray investigation,* proposed to procure for me all 
that was obtainable respecting the Jews in Richmond. 
I waited for that information for a considerable length, 
of time, when I heard of his death, and would then 
have prepared the final article with such material as I 
possessed, but that the publication of the Jewish 
Times ceased very soon thereafter. 

When the publisher of The American Hebrew^ 
expressed a desire to republish that which I had writ- 
ten, I promised to add to the publication what I would 
have done eighteen years ago, but for the causes above 
stated. 

Upon looking recently, however, into Mr. Isaac Mar- 
kens' work on "The Hebrews in America," published 
in New York, 1884, 1 find that this has beensubstan. 
tially done in the information there supplied (pp. 83-88). 
I could add something to it, but it would consist 



*Mr. Lyons, who in conjunction with Rev. Abraham de Soia^ 
published a work stated to be of great value upon the Hebrew 
Calendar, it has been said prepared for posthumous publication 
"An exhaustive history of the Jews in America, containing, extreme ■ 
y interesting facts connected with their early settlement in this- 
country," of which I know nothing beyond t-^ is statement. 



I02 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

only of dry details, which are not of interest to the 
general reader. All that I can do, therefore, to fulfil 
my promise to The American Hebrew to write a con- 
cluding part, is to add something respecting certain 
Jews of New York, who came within ray own period, 
all of whotn, with one exception, I knew personally. 

The Jews of New York, from an early period in the 
present century were great patrons of the Drama; 
several of them were actors and three were successful 
dramatists. The first among the actors in the order 
of time, was Aaron J. Phillips. He was a native of 
Philadelphia, and made his first appearance in New 
York at the Park Theatre in 1815, and continued to 
be a member of the stock company of that theatre for 
some years. He was a comedian and a successful im- 
itator of Barnes, a celebrated comic actor of that day. 
He and Barnes appeared as the Two Dromios, in 
Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, and Phillips' imi- 
tation of the latter was so perfect, that it was almost 
impossible to distinguish one from the other. He was 
an uncle of Mordecai M. Noah, to be hereafter referred 
to; and Cowell, in his memoir, says, that through the 
influence of his nephew, who was then an editor and 
a successful dramatist, Phillips secured the part of 
walking gentleman, in which he says he was anything 
but interesting from his ungainly appearance, and that 
if a profile of his person had been taken in black, the 
diflference could not be told between it and the shadow 
of a boy's top, with two pegs sticking out of it. His 
peculiar figure and face, however, were of service when 
he found his true role in grotesque comic characters. 
He was afterwards a manager of theatres in different 
cities in the United States, and was regarded as one of 
the best actors of old men upon the American stage 
in his time. He died in New York in 1826. 

Another actor of the same name was Moses S. Phil- 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA IO3 

lips, who though, like the former, a native of Philadel- 
phia, where he was born in 1798, was from his after 
associations, essentially a New Yorker. He made his 
debut at the Park Theatre in New York in 1827, ^s 
Mawworm in the "Hypocrite", and died in that city 
in 1854. He was also a manager of theatres in New 
York and other cities of the Union, in none of which 
was he financially successful from, it is said, his 
indolence and kind-heartedness. 

Emanuel Judah. 

Emanuel Judah, who Brown, in his history of the 
American stage, says, was born in New York, was an 
actor of a higher type than either of the foregoing. 
He first appeared in New York for the benefit of Aaron 
J. Phillips in 1823, and was then announced as from 
the Southern Theatres, where he was always a favorite 
actor I saw him many times in Savannah in the 
winter of 1829 and have rarely seen an actor who was 
so uniformly excellent in whatever he imdertook, and 
his range, within what is called the legitimate drama, 
was a wide one. He was a very gentlemanly man, 
below the medium height, with a finely proportioned 
person, a handsome face, and a voice of great 
sweetness, and power. Though he played attract- 
ively the higher parts in tragedy, he was most 
effective in melodrama and "in what was then 
known as the romantic drama and was excellent 
in the leading parts in light comedy. 

He was of that class of dramatic artists not very 
often found, who do everything well that they under- 
take without reaching the elevation of a great actor. 
He played occasionally in New York in different years, 
where, apparently, he was not appreciated as fully as 
he deserved to be, or as he was in the Southern Cities, 
where he was seen more frequently and in a greater 



I04 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

range of characters. He was drowned in the Gulf of 
Mexico in 1839, upon a voyage from New Orleans to 
Galveston in Texas. 

MoRDECAi M. Noah. 

Among the dramatists, the earliest and most pro- 
minent was Mordecai M. Noah, who, as a journalist, an 
author, a politican, and as a public officer, was for 
many years one of the best-known men in New York. 
He was born in Philadelphia in 1786 and on the 
maternal side was of what in this country is looked 
upon as an old Jewish lineage, being a direct descen- 
dant of those Jews, who, in the early part of the last 
century, fled from Portugal to escape the torture, the 
dungeon or the faggot, aid in one of his addresses he 
refers to an aged relative in this country, who, to the 
end of her life bore the mark upon her wrist, of the 
rack to which she had been bound. His immediate 
family, named Nunez, who were wealthy residents 
of lyisbon, escaped in an English frigate to London, 
from whence they emigrated to Georgia with Ogle - 
thorpe, and were among the founders of Savannah. 
The principal member of the family, Dr. Nunez, has 
been before referred to. 

His relatives in Philadelphia had been active and 
influential supporters of the American Revolution and 
there was a tradition in the family that General 
Washington had been present at the marriage of his 
parents. Of his father, whose name was Manuel 
Noah, I know nothing, except that his son was left at 
the early age of four years to the care of a maternal 
grandfather ; that when walking with this relative in 
the streets of Philadelphia he pointed out to him Dr. 
Franklin and his wife, and took him when a boy to 
the opening of Congress, where he saw Washington, 
of whom throuofhout his life he retained a vivid 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 10$ 

recollection. In Philadelphia he \^as put to the trade 
of a carver and gilder, which owing to his strong 
literary tendencies he did not follow, but found some 
other occupation, the proceeds of which supplied him 
with the means of going constantly to the theatres, in 
Tc'spect to which he made a statement worthy of the 
consideration of those who insist upon the immoral 
effect of theatrical representations. ''I went," he 
says, "regularly to the theatre, rarely missing a night, 
and always retired to bed gratified and improved after 
witnessing a good play, and thus escaped the hauniis 
of taverns and the pursuit of depraved pleasures, 
wliich too frequently allure and destroy young men. 
I have therefore, always been a firm friend of the 
<3rama"; in confirmation of which effect, I may add 
that, although Noah was constantly assailed for years 
during his career as a journalist and a politician, and 
sometimes by most vituperative epithets, I do not 
recall an attack assailing or in any way questioning 
the purity of his private life. 

His fondness for the drama led him tojoin a juven- 
ile company of amateurs, where his chief employ- 
ment appears to have been the cutting up of plays, 
the substituting of new passages, the casting of parts 
and the writing of couplets for exits, and this youthful 
training in what is essential for dramatic effect, gave 
him a knowledge of what is requisite in the construc- 
tion of plays, that dramatic authors do not always 
possess; which was thereafter his forte as a dramatist, 
and the reason why his plays were always successful. 

In early manhood he went to Charleston in South 
Carolina, where he became, in 1810, the editor of a 
journal, The City Gazette^ engaged actively in poli- 
tics, and, it is said, studied law. Here the first of his 
plays was acted. He had previously written in Phil- 
adelphia a melodrama called "The Fortress of Sorren. 



'06 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

to," which, he says, was never performed. The one 
in Charleston he called Paul and Alexis," or, *'The 
Orphans of the Rhine." It was written for Mrs. C. 
h. Young, an English actress, ihen playing in Char- 
leston, who is described by Ireland as a perfect blonde 
■ with a profusion of rich golden hair, and of the rarest 
beauty of person. Though not remarkable as an act- 
ress, she wai a great favorite, and this pretty play 
was doubtless written to heighten the attraction of 
her pe^-sonal charms. It was afterwards taken to Lon- 
don by her husband, where it was altered and improv- 
ed, and, with its name changed to "The Wandering 
Boys," was brought out in 1820 at the Park Theatre 
in New York with great success. It had the attract- 
tion of two fine actresses, Mrs. Barnes and Miss Johnson. 
Mrs. Barnes, then and for many years one of the 
most distinguished actresses upon the American stage, 
as the fearless, intrepid and quick-witted boy, and Miss 
Johnson, afterwards Mrs. Hilson, in the character of 
his timorous and shrinking brother, says the afore- 
mentioned author of "Records of the New York stage," 
won universal applause, through the force and truth- 
fulness of their acting, which lean affirm, having, when 
a boy, seen thenl both in this play, which for many 
years thereafter continued to be one of the most 
attractive and popular upon the stage. 

Our naval war with Tripoli, which began in 1802, 
drew Noah's attentiou to the Barbary States. It led 
him to the study of the histpry of that part of North 
Africa from the Carthaginian period downward, and 
filled him with a strong desire to visit these States, as 
he said, "to seek out the ruins of Utica and trace, if 
possible, the field of Zama,'' the scene of Scipio's vic- 
tory over Hannibal. There was another attraction: 
The Jews, from the time of the Romans, hid settled 
extensively in North Africa, and their number had 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 107 

been largely augmented by the persecution that drov^ 
them out of Spain. To obtain authentic information 
respecting this branch of tlie people of Israel, where 
they weresituated, their character, their resources and 
their number, was to so earnest a member of that faith 
as he was, a strong inducement; especially as no Jew 
ish travelers, whose works were extant, had traversed 
these countries since the journey of Benjamin of Tud- 
ela in the thirteenth century. But as these countries 
were then inhabited by barbarians, it was not safe to 
venture for such a purpose, beyond the limits of the 
sea-board cities, without the security of an armed 
force; and as this was always obtainable by a consul 
such a position was desirable, and the Consulates of 
Tunis and Tripoli were not then filled. He according- 
ly applied for an appointment to one of them, and as 
he had been very active in politics in Charleston, and 
had become quite prominent, he was able to bring so 
much influence to bear in support of his gpplicsticn 
that President Madison, while indisposed to grant his 
particular request, offered him the Consulship of Riga. 
This was an important commercial port on the Baltic, 
but a continental war was then prevailing that would 
have made the position an isolated one and he declined 
the appointment. But two years afterwards, in 1813, 
a state of things arose that enabled him to get the post 
that he wanted. Though our naval war with Tripoli 
was brought by our fleet to a successful end, and we 
were in a position to dictate what terms we pleased, 
our negoliations were so unskilfully managed by our 
diplomatic representative, that we had to pay a con- 
siderable sum of money when the Treaty of Peace was 
signed. 

This greatly lessened the respect f<^ us by ^he other: 
Barbary powers and especially on the part of th.^ 
Algerines. To secure our compi^rce in ll>e Heditejr- 



■r08 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

ranean, we had for some years paid au armed tribute 
to this nest of pirates, but the large sum we had paid 
to Tripoli for a Treaty of Peace, after we had conquered 
it, led the Algerines to suppose that they could make 
more by preyiug upon our commerce, which had then 
become considerable in the Mediterranean, and they 
abruptly dismissed our Consul, captured a vessel from 
Salem and reduced the officers and crew, consisting of 
twelve persons, to slavery. This made it necessary 
to send out a judicious and competent representative 
to ascertain the real cause of this course on the part 
of the Dey of Algiers, as well as to secure the emanci" 
pation of our enslaved countrymen, and Noah was 
appointed for this important service. We were then 
at war with England, in consequence of which he 
sailed from Charleston in a vessel, bound for France^ 
which was captured by the British fleet off the French 
■coast. 

The crew and some of the passengers were 
landed in France, but Noah was detained as a prisoner 
of war, and, being regarded as a person of importance 
was courteously treated by the officers of different 
vessels of the fleet to which he was successively trans- 
ferred, until au opportunity was afforded of sending 
him to England; and when he arrived at Plymouth, 
this courteous treatment was continued and he was 
allowed to remain at liberty upon his parole. This 
■enabled him to visit lyoudon and other English cities 
and to obtain considerable knowledge of the country 
^nd people. After some months he was released, and 
•sailing for Cadiz in Spain, entered upon the duties of 
his office, which was that of Consul at Tunis, with 
certain powers in respect to Algiers. In Tunis he 
■displayed considerable intrepidity and capacity in 
maintaining and securing successfully the right of 
-iasyiutn' attaching to the Consulate, so essential in 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I09 

the general interest of humanity, in these arbitrary 
and badly administered governments. 

After sufficient time had elapsed for investigation, 
he reached the conclusion and, so advised our govern- 
ment, that diplomacy could accomplish nothing with 
the Algerines. That a state of war would have to be 
recognized, and a sufficient naval force despatched to 
subdue them, which advice our government acted up- 
on aud sent out a.squadrou under Commodore Decatur. 

By the written instructions of Monroe, who was 
then Secretary of State, Noah was authorized at some 
place, upon his way to Tunis, to devise means for the 
liberation of the American captives of Algiers ; to ex- 
pend for their ransom any sum not exceeding $3,000 
for each person, to find a suitable channel through 
which he could negotiate for their immediate release 
without its being understood to proceed from our 
government, but rather from the friends of the parties 
themselves, and, if successful, he was authorized to 
draw upon the United States Government for the ue 
cessary funds for the payment of the ransom of the 
captives and the expense of their return to the United 
States. 

In pursuance of these instruqtions he found, upon 
reaching Cadiz, an American named Keene, who had 
been natnralized as a Spanish subject, and who was 
highly recommended to him by the American Consu- 
there for this service. In employing him there was 
not only the advantage of his having the protection of 
a Spanish subject, but Keene was able, in addition, to 
procure despatches from the Spanish Government and 
special letters from the British Embassador at the Court 
of Spain, to the British Consul at Algiers. 

Noah consequently engaged him and agreed to pay 
him, if successful, $3,000 for his services. Noah could 
not have gone himself in his diplomatic character to 



no JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

Algiers, which would not only have been a departure 
from his instructions, but as the Algerines were then 
in open warfare with the United States, he would 
probably not have been recognized, and if he had gone 
there in any other character, and it was discovered 
that he was an American, he would have been seized 
and sold into slavery. 

Keene,after an absence of six mouths,bronght back 
with him six persons for whose rescue Noah expended 
$18,000, obtaining the money by drawing bills of 
Exchange on the United States Government, which 
he got discounted at Gibraltar. 

But $4000 of the money was expended by Keene in 
Tunis. It was paid for the restoration of two of the 
twelve who had been captured with the vessel from 
Salem. The other four persons that Keene returned 
with had been brought to Tunis after Keene had ar- 
rived there. They were landed from'|a|^British fri- 
gate in Algiers and were consequently in the custody 
there of the British Consul. They claimed to be 
Americans and were probably natives of Louisiana. 
The British Consul was satisfied that they were Amer- 
icans, and as an act of humanity, for, having openly 
avowed themselves to be Americans, they could have 
been seized by the Dey of Algiers, the Consul turned 
them over to Keene, who brought them away with 
him. Nothing was paid for them, and the balance, 
$14,000 of the money expended, was applied in the 
care of these six persons, whiph included sending them 
back to the Uuited States and $6000 of it was paid to 
Keene, which was double the amount he was to receive 
by his contract. He told along and complicated story, 
which Noah believed, of the difiiculty he had to encoun- 
ter, of the risk he ran of his life, and the expenses he 
had been put to, and Noah considered, in view of all 
the circumstances, that he was entitled to the $6000 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA Hj 

that he claimed. The government, however, was not 
satisfied with the transaction, and, to Noah's con- 
sternation, the bills of exchange he had drawn upon 
it, came back protested. 

Noah was placed in a critical position. He was 
responsible on the bills of the exchange as the drawer 
of them, and having no means to pay them, was liable 
to be arrested in Tunis and thrown into prison. No 
consul in Barbary would be recognized whose bills 
were known to have been protested by the govern- 
ment, and, as he states, he would have been left to 
starve for want of assistance and would have been 
subjected to insult and ill-treatment by the Ber- 
bers. He had no idea that the government conceived 
that he had gone beyond his instructions and supposed 
that the Department, when the bills were presented 
was without immediate funds to meet them; for 
during the war with Great Britain our finances were 
in a wretched condition and the credit of the govern- 
ment was greatly impaired, both at home and abroad. 
The protested paper, which with the loss and damage 
arising from the protest, amounted to over $21,000, 
was sent by the creditors to the British Consul at 
Tunis with positive and unyielding orders to seize 
the person and property of Noah for the payment of 
the bills. The Consul, however, was considerate and 
agreed to wait until the arrival of Decatur, believing 
with Noah, that he would biing with him the money 
to pay them. 

Decatur's squadron arrived, and encountering an 
Algerine frigate, he captured it after a fierce battle in 
which an admiral who had long been celebrated in 
the Mediterranean and had become a terror to the 
Christian nations, was killed. Decatur followed this 
up by the captuie of anoiher cniiser, after which he 
blockaded Algeria so effect ua 11 y as to cut it off" from 
all access by sea. 



112 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

This brought to terms the Day of Algiers, who was 
compelled to sign a treaty dictated by the American 
Commander, by the terms of which all American cap- 
tives were released and the United States relieved 
from any payment of tribute to those sea robbers 
thereafter. 

This being accomplished, Decatnr sailed for Tunis 
to enforce a claim for indemnity from the Bey of 
Tunis for surrendering to the English two of our 
prizes, which were lying in that port. Upon Deca- 
tur's arrival, Noah went on board his vessel and the 
commander taking him into his cabin, handed him a 
dispatch from Mr. Monroe, the Secretary of State. 
This Noah supposed would contain the explanation 
of the protests of tb.e bills, but on the contrary, he 
found it to be a very curt letter, informing him that 
it was not known at the time of his appointment that 
his religion would be any obstacle to the exercise of 
his consular functions, but that recent information on 
which entire reliance could be placed, proved that it 
would have a very unfavorable effect; that the Presi- 
dent, therefore, had deemed it expedient to revoke 
his commission, and that upon receipt of this letter 
he would consider himself as no longer in the service 
of the United States. To this the Secretary added 
that there were some circumstances connected with 
his accounts that required explanation, as those already 
given had not been approved by the President. This 
was a blow that would have unnerved any ordinary 
man; but Noah, in this »^mergency, showed the cap- 
acity and cleverness for managing a financial diffi- 
culty, that is characteristic of his race. A glance at 
Decatur's face satisfied him that the Commander knew 
nothing of the contents of the letter, and with that 
assurance he instantly devised a scheme to extricate 
liimself from his pecuniary embarrassment. ''If he 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA II3 

had known," says Noah in the vindication, which he 
published, "what was contained in the letter, it would 
have been his duty, and which he would have exer- 
cised promptly, to have sent an officer on shore to 
take possession of the seals and the archives of the 
Consulate, and T would," he says, "have returned to 
Tunis stripped of power, an outcast, degraded, dis- 
graced and with a heavy debt against me. I would, 
in all probability, have gone into a dungeon, where I 
might have perished, neglected and unpitied. " 

Quietly folding up the letter and putting it in his 
pocket, he proceeded to give Decatur a full account of 
the nature of our dispute with Tunis, explaining it 
with documents in his possession that he had brought 
with him. Having done this, he then suggested to 
the Commodore that, instead of going to the Dey 
himself and demanding the payment of the indemnity, 
he should leave the whole matter to him as Consul ; 
that, as he had experience in dealing with these Ber- 
bers, he would be able more effectually to secure 
the payment of the money; and that, for that purpose, 
Decatur should give him a letter to the Tunisian 
minister, making a formal demand, as Commander of 
the squadron, for the indemnity. The great stake 
that Noah had at issue led him a little too far in the 
vehemence with which he urged this proposition, so 
as to attract the attention of Decatur, who could not 
understand Noah's anxiety that it should be left solely 
to him, as Consul, to obtain the money, when Decatur 
was there with his squadron, and could enforce the 
payment of it as effectually as he had brought the Dey 
of Algiers to terms. He suspected that some other 
motive dictated Noah's extraordinary warmth as he 
piled arguments upon arguments with such vehe- 
mence; and finally told him that if he imagined that 
he, Decatur, was there under his orders, he must un_ 



114 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

deceive himself. Noah quickly saw his peril. "It 
was evident," he says, "that a storm was gathering 
that would have destroyed all my plans," and with 
that adroitness he displayed throughout the whole of 
this transaction, he succeeded in calming our cele- 
brated naval hero by the assurance that he wished 
mainly to co-operate with him in such measures as 
Decatur's own prudence would dictate, as they were 
both there to serve their country in the best manner 
they could. This satisfied the Commodore, who gave 
him the letter,aud who upon the whole was pleased with 
the prompt way Noah pointed out of accomplish- 
ing the result the squadron had come there to bring 
about. It was then night; Noah betook himself to rest 
on the cabin floor, in a state of mind that did not invite 
repose, and, that there might be no opportunity for 
Decatur to reconsider his action upon more mature 
deliberation, the anxious ex-consul, at the earliest 
approach of dawn, got the officer of the deck to send 
him ofFinaboat to the shore. 

On his way to Tunis he pondered over Monroe's let- 
ter, which he found difficult to understand, as the gov- 
ernment was not only acquainted with his religion at 
the time of his appointment, but knew that it was one 
of the reasons why he desired it and it was not known 
in Tunis that he was a Jew. He states, what was pro- 
bably true, that in the exercise of his consular func- 
tions he was not only respected, but even feared by the 
Tunisian government and enjoyed the esteem and good 
will of every resident. 

He promptly submitted Decatur's demand to the 
Minister of Marine, who receiving it in no very good 
humor, sent for him and after declaring that this was 
not a proper aud respectful manner of proceeding in 
such a matter, asked him why the American Com- 
mander did not come and make his complaint to the 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA IIJ 

Dey in person, and why he demanded an answer forth- 
with ; that they were not accustomed to be treated in 
such a manner ; that there was a time when the United 
States waited upon their pleasure to make a treaty, 
and not only paid for it, but gave them presents. 
Noah calmly answered that that was an affair of the 
past. That they ought to have complied with the 
demand of the United States before the arrival of the 
squadron ; that it was now too late and that Commo- 
dore Decatur had determined not to land without a 
favorable answer. "Why, Consul," said the Minister, 
"are you so tranquil? Before the fleet was here, 
you were loud and positive, but now that you are back- 
ed by a force, you suddenly become quiet and indif- 
ferent." "Because," said Noah, "remonstrance is no 
longer necessary. War is now inevitable. We have 
made peace with Algiers upon our own terms and the 
squadron is here for another contest, as it is better to 
have no treaty than one that is not respected." This 
was followed by an interview with the Dey, and the 
following morning the money demanded, $46,000 was 
sent to the Consulate 

Decatur naturally expected that the money would 
be given to him to carry back to the United StateS) 
and made inquiries as to his right to receive and 
retain it. But Noah was able to satisfy Decatur on this 
point, who supposed he was still the Consul. "I 
did not tell him," says Noah, "why I wished to retain 
possession of the money, or that I expected to be in 
America before he was." The purpose of the visit to 
Tunis having been accomplished, -the squadron de- 
parted. As soon as it was gone, Noah paid the bills of 
exchange with the interest and damage, out of the 
money of the government in his possession, and leaving 
the Consulate in charge of a subordinate, he returned 
to the United States and settled in New York, where, 



Il6 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

in a few years, he became prominent as a jonrnalist, 
and lived there for the remainder of his life. In going 
through Paris, on his journey home, it is said, that he 
accidentally met and recognized his father, whom he 
had not seen from the time that he was five years of 
age. 

Immediately upon his return he went to Washington, 
and called upon Monroe, who, he says, received him 
ungraciously, and instead of a restoration as he expect- 
ed, to an office of equal rank, accused him of 
going beyond his orders, of employing a most obnox- 
ious character, of expending the public money unne- 
cessarily, and justified his recall and the manner of it. 
This is difficult to understand as Noah represents it, 
for Monroe was an upright and a capable man and 
was not without experience as a diplomatic represent- 
ative, having been our Minister to England, and as 
our Envoy to France had secured the acquisition 
of Ivouisiana. He was also a patriotic man who, when 
acting as Secretary of War, pledged his personal credit 
to obtain the funds that were necessary for the defence 
of New Orleans, and retired from the Presidency im- 
paired alike in health and in fortune. John Quincy 
Adams said of him upon his retiVement, that he was 
always honest and sincere ; of intentions always pure, 
of labors outlasting the daily circuit of the sun and 
outwatching the vigils of the night; that with a mind 
always anxious in the pursuit of right he was patient 
of inquiry; patient of contradiction ; courteous, always 
sound in his ultimate judgment and firm in his final 
conclusions, and it is difficult to suppose that such a 
man would treat Noah in the way that he did, unless 
there was something more than appears in thelatter's 
narrative. 

Noah, himself, acknowledged Monroe's high qual 
ities, for in the vindication he published, he says that 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 1 17 

notwithstanding the treatment he had received at his 
hands, he advocated him for Presidency and sustained 
his administration, as he believed him to be an honest 
man and a patriot. But this was not as disinterested 
as it appears. Political consistency, or fidelity to 
party were at no time among Noah's characteristics. 
The fact was that there was no party at the time, in 
opposition to Monroe, to go to. The successful term- 
ination of the war, the effect of the holding of the 
Hartford Convention, and the rapid advance in the 
prosperity of the country, had completely overthown 
the federal party and it was then extinct. Monroe 
was elected President almost without opposition and 
was re-elected with more unanimity than any one 
since Washington, receiving every vote cast in the 
electoral college except one. In fact, the whole 
period of his administration is aptly described by the 
phrase then so often applied to it of "The Era of Good 
Feeling." 

It took Noah a year to get his accounts adjusted, in- 
cluding several visits on his part to Washington, and 
when they were, he received a written acknowledg- 
ment from the adjusting officer that the government 
was indebted to him in a sum of over five thousand 
dollars. This was a recognition that he was justified 
in paying the amount of the protested bills out of the 
money of the government in his possession, and armed 
with this important document, he called upon Monroe 
who, however, refused to see him and turned him over 
to a subordinate. 

When he settled in New York in 1816, Henry 
Wheaton, afterwards the distinguished author of the 
well known authoritative work on International Law, 
having been appointed a Judge of the Marine Court, 
retired from the editorship of the National Advocate^ 
a daily journal that had been established by the 



Il8 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

Tammany Hall party in 1813, and as Noah was out of 
employment and had had some experience in journal- 
ism in Charleston, he was appointed Wheaton's 
successor and continued to be the editor of that paper 
for nearly ten years. 

In 1818, a new synagogue was erected upon the site 
of the old one in Mills Street, and Noah, upon its 
consecration, delivered the dedicatory address. In this 
address he referred to his family, stating that his 
grandfather, as pastor of the congregation, stood in the 
spot where he was then standing, seventy years before, 
and that his grandfather and his great-grandfather and 
his great-great-grandfather were buried in the cemetery 
before reterred to in Chatham Square. The address 
was chiefly devoted to the past history of the people of 
Israel with an expression of the most positive convic- 
tion that the prophecy in respect to their restoration 
as a nation would be fulfiled. He pointed out how 
under every kind of persecution, they had still held to- 
gether as a people, preserving their ancient faith; that 
there were then seven millions of them in the world, 
and that they would ultimately deliver the north of 
Africa from oppression, break the Turkish sceptre and 
in triumphant numbers would possess themselves of 
Syria. "This," he said, "is not fancy. I have been 
too much among them in Europe and in North Africa 
not to know their sentiments. They hold the purse- 
strings of the world and can wield the sword and bring 
an army of a hundred thousand men into the field." 

This was with him no new idea. The restoration 
and re-establishment of the Jews as a people and the 
gathering of them together under the free and toler- 
ant institution of the United States, was a subject up- 
on which he addressed a letter in 1808 to Thomas 
Jefferson, to which the author of the Declaration of 
Independence made the pithy reply, that "intolerance 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA II9 

is inherent in every sect; disclaimed by all when fee- 
ble and practiced by all when in power, and that our 
laws apply the only antidote, which is to put them all 
on an equality." 

Noah's occupation as a journalist brought him 
into frequent connection with the theatre and led him 
to return to dramatic authorship. In 1819, he wrote 
for the Park Theatre, a clever play called, " She 
would be a Soldier, or the Plains of Chippewa," which 
from its own merit and the excellent acting of Barnes 
and Spiller in the comic characters, and that of Miss 
Leesugg, an English actress, in the part of the hero, 
ine, was a great success. Miss lycesugg, who shortly 
afterwards married James H. Hackett, the celebrated 
comedian and retired from the stage, is described 
as being at this time in the bloom of youth, with 
sparkling eyes, a buxom figure, a melodious voice, 
great sprightliness and vivacity, and as the very Hebe 
of actresses. As the heroine in this play, in which 
she appears to have been particularly attractive, she 
introduced, in the Bnglish translation, Plorteuse, the 
Queen of Holland's " Partant pour le Syrie, " which 
became the French national air in the reign of her 
son. Napoleon IH. In a rich contralto voice, she 
sang this romantic ballad with so much effect, that it 
became a favorite song in private circles for some 
time thereafter and underwent the unfailing test of 
popularity of being successfully parodied in a comic 
song, that was for years the delight of the circus. 
Noah in addition to this, wrote seven other plays, 
all of which, with one exception, were successful.* 

* They were : "Marion or the Hero of Lake George," 'The 
Grecian Captive,'' The Fortress of Sorrento," "The New Consti- 
tution." "The Canal,'' "Yesop Caramatti or the Siege of Tripoli,'' 
Hudson in his "Journalism," attributes to him four other plays, in 
some of which certainly and probably in all this writer was mis- 



120 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

This was called the "Grecian Captive," which he 
wrote in 1822, for the benefit of his uncle, x\aron J. 
Phillips. Noah thought it would add to the attraction 
to present each person who went to the benefit with a 
printed copy of the play, which had a result lie did 
not anticipate ; for when the actors looked upon the 
audience and saw a thousand persons, each with a 
book in hand, turning over the leaves, with the 
accompanying buzz and flutter, they became confused, 
forgot their parts and to carry on the action of the 
piece, had to improvise, by saying whatever occurred 
to them, which had the effect, also, to confuse the 
audience in attempting to follow the dialogue, until a 
climax was reached by what the beneficiary thought 
would produce a great effect. This was the entry of 
Phillips, as the Turkish Commander, mounted upon a 
live elephant, that had been procured from a menag- 
erie. His grotesque figure has already been mentioned 
and as the huge animal, with Phillips perched on tlie 
top of it, came marching down to the footlights, to the 
alarm and confusion of the musicians in the orchestra, 
Phillips, unable to steady himself upon the unwieldly 
beast, toppled over and the curtain fell amid shouts of 
laughter from all parts of the house. Noah was 
greatly ridiculed for his production, and had the man- 
liness to come out in his paper with a statement that 
the failure of his drama was not owing to the actors, 

taken. They are AH Pacha or the Signet Ring, which was written 
by John Howard Payne ; the Siege of Dahnatia.by which was pro- 
bably meant the Siege of Damascus, which was not written by 
Noah, but by John Hughes, in which Mr. Hosack, a member of a dis- 
tinguished family, made his debut at the Park Theater in 1826, and 
neither he, nor the play, were ever heard of afterwards on the New 
York boards; "Natalie" which may refer to a ballet of this name 
that was first performed at the Park Theatre in 1839 and" Ambition" 
a tragedy, that was produced as a new play, at Burton's Theatre, in 
New York, in 1858, two years after Noah's death. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I2l 

but to his own imprudence in furnishing each of the 
audience with a printed copy of the play. 

In 1819 he published his "travels." He had been 
frequently assailed by political opponents for his acts 
as consul, and the object of this publication was not 
only to give an accountof the countries he had visited, 
but to vindicate his official acts in Tunis. The work 
was well written, but badly arranged, as the narrative 
was given continuously without any division into 
chapters or any index, and his consular troubles and 
difficulties are mixed up throughout with his journeys 
and observations as a traveler. It contains a descrip- 
tion of the different places he saw in England, France, 
Spain and the Barbary States, and much of the local 
history of the various cities and towns that he visited ; 
a kind of information that it was more difficult then 
to obtain than it is now. Sixty years afterwards, I 
went over the same ground that he traversed in 
Southern France, in Spain and a portion of North 
Africa, a part of the world that has since undergone 
comparatively little change, and can commend the 
acuteness of his observations, his general accuracy and 
graphic manner of describing what he saw. The work 
was well received, as it contained a very full and the 
best account that we then had of the Barbary States, 
which at the time in this country was of national 
interest, in consequence of our recent naval wars witb 
Tripoli and Algiers. 

He gives in it a very full account of the Jews in 
these States, of whom there were 700,000, about 
60,000 being in the province of Tunis and from 20 to 
30,000 in the City of Tunis. He describes them as 
the leading men in Barbary; that they were at the head 
of the Custom House, that they farmed the revenue, 
that they had secured the monopoly of various kinds 
of merchandise and of the exportation of different 



122 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

articles ; controlled the mint and regulated the coin- 
age, kept the Dey's jewels and were his secretaries, 
treasurers and interpreters ; that they were the prin- 
cipal mechanics and that the little that was known 
there of arts, sciences and medicine, was confined to 
them ; that many of them possessed immense wealth 
and many were poor ; that the idea that they were 
oppressed, was in a great measure imaginary, and the 
general account that he gave of them, especially of 
those of Tunis, was not very complimentary. The fact 
which he states, that it was not knowu in Tunis that 
he was a Jew, although it was said that there were 
30,000 of them in that City, would indicate that he 
deemed it advisable to conceal his religion, aud that 
Monroe may have been right in his letter, that it 
would be on obstacle to the exercise of his Consular 
functions and produce an unfavorable efifect. 

He made a profitable use of the limited period that 
he was in Tunis in the study of antiquities and in 
archaeological researches, which he embodied in his 
book. Among other things, he investigated the ruins 
of the Carthaginian city and what remained of a long 
past civilization in the immediate vicinity of Tunis, 
and thought he discovered the spot where the battle 
of Zama was fought, which resulted in the defeat of 
Hannibal by Scipio, and the overthrow of Carthage. 
Upon the whole, his book was a creditable one, and 
gave him a reputation both as a scholar aud as an 
intelligent traveler. 

In the ten years that elapsed after the publication 
of this book, he became prominent in New York both as 
an editor and as a popular dramatist ; and George P. 
Morris, the editor of one of the earliest of our literary 
journals of New York, liac given his recollections of 
him at this period. He says that he was then a great 
literary and political lion in the City of New York ; 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 1 23 

that he told the best story, rounded the best sentence, 
and wrote the best play of all his contemporaries^; 
that he was the life and spirit of all circles ; that his 
wit was everywhere repeated and that, as an editor, 
critic and author, he was looked up to as an oracle. 

In 1820, he wrote a melodrama, called "Yusef Car- 
matti or, The Siege of Tripoli," which was pro- 
duced at the Park Theatre, for the benefit of Miss 
Johnson, the attractive actress before referred to. 
This was his first and only attempt to obtain a pecu- 
niary recompense for his dramatic productions, and on 
the third night of the representation of this play, May 
25th, 1820, it was given for his benefit to a crowded 
and fashionable house. The performance was con- 
cluded satisfactorily, when, immediately after the 
audience left the house, it took fire, and in a very 
short time the theatre was burned to the ground. 
Fortunately, the receipts of the night were saved, hav- 
ing been taken by the treasurer to his own house be- 
fore the fire broke out. On the following day the 
amount received, over two thousand dollars, was sent 
by the Manager to the author, and Noah, with a bene- 
volence that was characteristic of the man throughout 
his life, gave the whole of it for the relief of the indigent 
members of the company, who, in consequence of the 
calamity, were for many months thrown out of 
employment. This act of generosity was highly com- 
mended at the time by citizens of every class, as it 
deserved to be, and especially as Noah was a man of 
but limited means, editors then being about as poorly 
paid as poets. 

When the Park Theatre was rebuilt in 1831, Noah, 
as his contribution to the new edifice and to honor the 
annual celebration of the evacuation of the City of 
New York by the British in 1783, wrote a military 
play, which he called, "Marion or The Hero of 



124 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

Lake George." He was then an officer of the New 
York militia, with the title, by which he was always 
known afterwards, of Major Noah, and to add to the 
eclat of the military drama and to the celebration of 
the anniversary, he exerted himself to procure a large 
attendance of his military associates in iiniform, with 
a result that may be described in his own words: 
"what with generals, staff officers, rank and file, the 
Park Theatre was so crammed, that not a word of the 
play was heard, which was a very fortunate aflfair for 
the author." 

In 1822 he was appointed Sheriff of New York, an 
office from which, during the short time he held it, he 
derived no pecuniary benefit, as he gave a large part 
of the proceeds to the widow of his predecessor in the 
office, who had been left destitute, and the residue 
and more, he expended for the relief of poor debtors, 
who as sheriff, he had in custody, imprisonment for 
debt then being allowed. By the amended Constitu- 
tion of 182T, the office of sheriff was made elective, 
and Noah was nominated by the Tammany party for 
election. Meanwhile he had given great offence. He 
had applied for a portion of the state printing and 
failing to get it, made an unwarrantable attack upon 
some of the most respected leaders of the democratic 
party, charging them with the want of good faith, 
which caused such indignation that a formidable op- 
position was organized against him, and in one of the 
most exciting political contests, that New York had 
previously known, he was defeated. During the can- 
vass one of the objections urged, was a Jew's being 
put in an office where he would have the right to 
hang a Christian; to which Noah replied in his point- 
ed way, ' 'that it was a pity that Christians had to be 
hanged.'' 

As Monroe's administration drew to a close, the 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 1 25 

political harmony that had prevailed, disappeared, and 
four candidates were brought forward for the 
presidency. John Quincy Adams, his Secretary 
of State, Wm. H. Crawford, his Secretary of the 
Treasury, Henry Clay, and General Andrew 
Jackson. 

The Tammany party, or the Bucktails, as they were 
then called, supported Crawford and Noah in their or- 
gan, the Nafiojtal Advocate^ denounced the Republi- 
cans who did not support Crawford, as traitors, which 
was meant to apply to the Clintonian party who sus- 
tained Jackson, and especially to Charles King, the 
editor of an influential republican evening paper called 
The American^ who came out for John Quincy 
Adams, the personal antagonism of the two editors. 
King and Noah, being one of the political features of 
th.e time. General Jackson received a greater num- 
ber of votes than either of his competitors, but lacking 
a plurality, the election devolved upon the House of 
Representatives and John Quincy Adams was elected 
President. 

King's paper. The America7i^ became consequently 
the organ in the City of New York of the new Admin- 
istration, 2M^\h.^ National Advocate, the leading jour- 
nal in opposition. After the War with Great Britian, 
King, who had been sent out to England by the 
President, charged with certain duties respecting the 
American prisoners at Dartmouth, had done 
something to which Noah took exception, and with 
this cause of a quarrel, a controversy began between 
them which lasted for many years. 

On the part of King, who was a high tempered man 
and vigorous writer, it was particularly vindictive^ 
whilst on the part of Noah, who had a facile pen, it 
was clever, adroit, and most effective in the shape of 
short witty sallies and humorous retorts, and was car- 



126 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

ried ou throughout in such a vein of outward pleas- 
antry and inward sarcasm, as to be exceedingly 
annoying to his irate antagonist. 

Many of his crisp and amusing paragraphs in this 
controversy might be given, but one will suffice to 
show their general cleverness. Madame Brugere, the 
wife of an opulent French merchant of this City, had 
become socially distinguished for her fine manners, 
queenly bearing and the elegant receptions she gave 
at her spacious mansion in Broadway. The lady 
gave a fancy ball, that is said to have been the first 
one ever given in America ; which Scovill, in his 
account of the merchants ot New York, says, set 
everybody crazy in the city, and that for months 
every one spoke in raptures of the great fancy ball. 
King, who was a man of social position, and whom 
Noah was in the habit of calling the pink of society, 
was invited and went to it. The ball was attended 
not only by the elite of New York society, but of 
Boston, Philadelphia, Albany and Baltimore. Noah 
in some way contrived to get an account of the prin- 
cipal persons who were present, and of the fancy 
dresses they wore, that he published in his paper, in 
which account he stated that King went to the ball 
in the dress of a private gentleman, and nobody 
knew him ; that he changed his dress three times in 
the course of the evening, and being recognized in 
his last disguise, the band struck up "God Save the 
King." 

The National Advocate was not what is called a 
paying paper, and as Noah's remuneration was small, 
and as he did not agree with one of the proprietors as 
to the manner in which the paper should be con- 
ducted, he left it in 1826 and established a daily 
Journal of his own which he called by the same name, 
the Natio7ial Advocate. This he was enjoined from 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 127 

doing by the court, when he changed it to Noah's 
National Advocate and this being also enjoined, he 
called it the Enquirer^ which he continued to edit 
until it was merged in 1826 with the Morning 
Courier^ under the joined name of the Courier and 
Enquirer. 

It was the custom then both of the English and 
American newspapers to discuss the questions of the 
day in what are called leading articles. These he 
seldom wrote, as he was notjclever in argument ; but 
generally confined himself to short, pithy paragraphs, 
seasoned with humor and pointed by wit, which 
proved quite as effectual as graver essays. 

He was quite a master of sarcasm, in the use of 
which however he was rarely malevoent or vindic- 
tive, but employed it as the most potent means for 
ridicule. 

In 1825, Noah turned to his long cherished scheme 
of the restoration of the Jews to their past glory as a 
nation. Whilst a most tolerant and liberal-minded 
man in respect to the religious belief of others, he was 
strongly attached to his own people, regarding them 
as a race apart, originally chosen by God to work out 
a sublime faith, who, notwithstanding all they had 
undergone, were increasing in number aud had a great 
future before them. He not only believed in the ful- 
filment of the prophecies, that they would come to- 
gether again as a nation, but that the time in the 
world's history for the beginning of the movement 
had arrived, and that he, under Divine inspiration, 
was an appointed instrument to bring it about ; for 
among all the successors of Israel and of Jacob that 
assembled in the synagogue, there was not one who 
was a more sincere believer or reverential worshiper. 

For this purpose he acquired, with the aid of some 
of his friends, an island thirteen miles in length and 



128 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

about five miles broad, called Grand Island, in the 
Niagara River, which divides the northwestern part of 
the State of New York from Canada and is close to 
Niagara Falls. Here the down-trodden Israelites from 

all parts of the world were to be brought as an 
"Asylum' and "City of Refuge," who together with 
the North American Indians, whom he believed were 
the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, were to 
form a great agricultural and industrial community, 
which was to be the beginning of the restoration of 
the Jewish people as a nation, under the constitution 
and liberal government of the United States. 

That the American Indian, who is by nature a 
nomad, and the Jew, who since the dispersion of his 
people, even when free to do so, has rarely taken to 
the cultivation of land as a means of livelihood, could 
be welded together in a self supporting, agricultural 
community, was an idea that would never occur to 
any one of a practical mind; but upon this subject 
Noah was an enthusiast; and like many enthusiasts, 
did not trouble himself by looking at the practical 
side of the matter. In a memorial to the New York 
Legislature for the purchase of this land, he represent- 
ed, that if the Jews in Europe were assured of such 
an "Asylum of Freedom" as he proposed to create 
upon Grand Island, they would emigrate to it in great 
numbers. 

Subsequently he was not so confident of the co- 
operation of the North American Indians. Measures 
however, were to be adopted to make them sensible 
of their origin, to cultivate their minds, soften their 
nature and finally reunite them with their brethren, 
the chosen people. 

This restoration of Israel as a nation, in and under 
the government of the United States, however, was 
not to be final. The Jew, he declared, would never 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I2g 

relinquish the hope of gaining possession again of his 
ancient heritage in Syria, and that the founding of 
this Asylum in Grand Island, therefore, was merely 
"temporary and provisional." 

It was, however, to be in this country, a gathering 
of the Jews tooether as a nation, from all parts of the 
world, and, as such, it required a directing power or 
head, which he considered could be accomplished by 
simply re-establishing the patriarchal form of govern- 
ment under which the children of Israel had lived in 
Palestine. If the Jews had ever in their patriarchal 
State any central head denoting national unity, it was 
not the high priest, but was in their fifteen successive 
iudges, until the functions of the judges were vested 
by the people in a King, who was "to judge them" 
as well as to fight their battles. The term King how- 
ever, was not an appropriate one to designate the 
head of an organization under a republican form of 
government, and Noah, going back to the judges, 
adopted the title of Governor and Judge of Israel. It 
was not exactly known how the judges in Israel were 
appointed, and Noah solved the difficulty by appoint- 
ing himself to this high office, and as the self-appointed 
ruler, for this purpose, of the seven millions of Jews 
throughout the world, he fixed a day, the 15th Sep- 
tember, 1825, for the dedication of the Asylum upon 
Grand Island, the laying of the corner-stone there 
with imposing ceremonies of the "City of Refuge," 
which he called Ararat, and he prepared to be issued 
as of that date, his proclamation to the Jews through- 
out the world. 

This extraordinary document, his proclamation, is 
too lengthy to be inserted here, but some account of it 
is essential to a full understanding of what he under- 
took and expected to accomplish, as well as of the 
character of the man. 



130 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

It began stating to his "beloved brethren" through- 
out the world, that, whereas, in fulfilment of the pro- 
mise made to the race of Jacob, they are to be 
gathered together from the four quarters of the world 
and to resume their part among the governments of 
the earth. Therefore, I, Mordecai M. Noah, citizen 
of the United States, late Consul to Tunis, High 
Sheriff of the City of New York and Counsellor-at-law, 
by the Grace of God Governor and Judge of Israel, 
have issued this proclamation. The document sets 
forth the great advantages of the State of New York, 
as a place of settlement for the oppressed and down- 
trodden Jews throughout the world, the fecundity of 
its soil and the salubrity of its climate, and especially 
of the attractions of Grand Island and of the beauty 
of its situation "where," he said, "they can till the 
land, reap the harvest, raise their flocks and enjoy 
their religion with peace and plenty" and these allure- 
ments having been pointed out, the document proceeds 
as follows : 

"In His name, who brought us out of Egypt, I 
revive, renew and re-establish the government of the 
Jewish nation, and enjoin it upon all Rabbis, Elders 
of Synagogues, Chiefs of Colleges and all of the 
brethren in authority throughout the world, to cir- 
culate this, my proclamation, announcing to the Jews 
that an Asylum has been provided for them. It is my 
will that a census of the Jews betaken throughout the 
globe, and the returns registered in the Synagogues. 
Those who from infirmity or any other cause are will- 
ing to remain where they are, "he says, "are allowed to 
do so, but are to encourage the emigration of the 
youug and enterprising, so as to add to the strength of 
the restored nation." He commands strict neutrality 
in the war between the Greeks and the Turks, which 
was then pending, and declares that those who are in 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I3I 

military employments may remain. He abolishes 
polygamy, and directs that all prayers are to be read 
thereafter in Hebrew. The North American Indians, 
who, the document says, are admitted to be of Asiatic 
origin, and in all probability are the descendants of 
the lost tribes of Israel, are called upon to come and 
unite with their brethren, as the chosen people, and 
in the tolerant spirit of the man, those of other denom- 
inations are also allowed to come, if they desire to do 
so. He then imposes a tax of three shekels, or one 
dollar in silver, annually, upon every Jew throughout 
the world, to procure agricultural implements for, and 
to meet othei expenses of the new settlement. He 
appoints by name a number of commissioners, in 
various cities in Europe, to assist in carrying out his 
proclamation, to whom proper instructions are to be 
transmitted thereafter, and finally, the brethren are 
asked to remember him in their prayers. After which 
the document closes with "By the Judge, A. B. Seixas, 
Secretary pro tern," which proclamation was, no doubt, 
as was its object, largely distributed through out the 
world, where Jews in any considerable number were 
settled. 

On the day fixed for the inauguration, the 15th day 
of September, 1825, it was found that there were not 
boats enough in Buffalo to carry to Grand Island all 
who wished to be present, and the celebration, in con. 
sequence, took place in Buffalo. The Jewish standard 
was displayed from a flag-staff". A procession, headed 
by a band of music, was formed, composed of military 
companies and several Masonic bodies in full regalia, 
after which came Noah as Governor and Judge of 
Israel in black, wearing a judicial robe of crimson 
silk, trimmed with ermine and with a richly em- 
bossed, golden medal suspended from his neck, fol- 
lowed by Masonic officers and dignitaries, who, with 



132 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

some citizens, closed the procession, which after 
marching through the principal streets of Bufialo, 
entered the Episcopal Church, the band playing the 
Grand March from Judas Maccabeus, and placed upon 
a table in front of the altar, was the corner-stone of 
the anticipated, city, with this inscription, " Hear, O 
Israel, the Lord is our God. Ararat, the Hebrew 
Refuge, founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the month 
of Tishri, corresponding with September 1825, i^^ ^^^^ 
50th year of American Independence." A prayer 
was delivered by an Episcopal clergyman, passages or 
lessons were read from the Old Testament, and Noah, 
in his robe as Judge and. Governor of Israel, delivered 
an oration that filled more than five columns of the 
large sized journals of that day, which a contemporary 
Buffalo newspaper declared contained details of the 
deepest interest, to which the crowded auditory 
listened with profound attention. These details con- 
sisted of an account of the Jews in the various coun- 
tries in which they had settled and an exposition of his 
scheme for their restoration as a nation, which I have 
already substantially given, and the exercises closed by 
the choir singing, " Before Jehovah's Awful Throne." 

Afterwards a salvo of 24 guns was fired and a mon- 
ument of brick and wood was erected upon the Island, 
on the site of the contemplated city, with the inscrip- 
tion, " Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews, founded 
by Mordecai M. Noah in the 50th year of American 
Independence. 

The celebration in Buffalo was the beginning and 
the end of the scheme. The European Rabbis refused 
to sanction it. The proclamation was not responded 
to. The monument of brick and wood, like the pro- 
ject itself, fell to pieces, and in the course of years 
wholly disappeared. 

General Jackson, in recognition of Noah's political 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I33 

services, appointed him in 1829 Surveyor of the Port 
of New York. The Senate by a close vote rejected 
the nomination, but, upon Jackson's representation 
that some of the Senators who had voted against it 
had been misinformed as to certain facts, it was 
reconsidered, and after a severe contest, in which the 
Senate was equally divided, the nomination was con- 
firmed by the casting vote of Vice President Van 
Buren. 

He held this office until 1833, when he resigned it. 
His resignation was attributed by his political oppo- 
nents to General Jackson's refusing to appoint him to 
the more lucrative office of Collector of the Port of 
New York. Whether this was true or not, he was 
from that time an active opponent of Jackson's admin- 
istration. The Courier and Enquirer^ under the joint 
proprietorship of Webb and Noah, had supported Gen- 
eral Jackson for the presidency, and his administration 
during his first term. But Jackson, having followed 
up his veto of the charter of the United States in 1832, 
by his removal of the deposits of the bank in 1833, 
after his re-election, the Courier and Enquirer came 
out against him and became an organ of what was 
known for many years thereafter as the "Whig Party, " 
This change was alleged by Jackson's supporters to 
have been brought about by a loan or gift to Col. 
Webb on the part of the bank of $50,000 to secure the 
influence of the paper in its favor. There was some 
grounds for the belief that the bank made unwarrant- 
able use of its funds to secure political influence, and 
especially that of leading newspapers, and on an invest- 
igation by a committee of Congress, a promissory note 
made by Noah was found amongst the assets. Noah, 
in his testimony before the committee, stated that the 
money for which the note was given, was received 
from a private individual as a loan pressed upon him 



134 JKW3 IN NORTH AMERICA 

of unemployed funds, which was probably true; for no 
one, so far as I know, ever accused him of personal 
dishonesty; being a man, who in money matter, was 
always more ready to give than to take. In all prob- 
ability, however, the note was brought to the bank 
by some one into whose possession it had passed, and 
the bank gave the money upon it to get Noah's in- 
fluence, or to silence his opposition. He expressed to 
the committee his surprise, as he said, "to find his 
note turn up among the assets of the bank," and after 
this transaction, he withdrew from all further connec- 
tion with the Courier and Enquirer and sold out his 
share of that paper to his co-proprietor, Col. Webb. 

There v^as perhaps another explanation of Noah's 
coming out at the time against the administration. 
Jackson's removal of the deposits of the government 
from the United States Bank and depositing them in 
the state, or as they were called, "pet" banks, created 
a great sensation throughout the country, especially 
in all commercial circles, and particularly in the City 
of New York. There was the attraction, therefore, 
to a politician like Noah, of the formation of a power- 
ful political party in opposition to the administration, 
which the "Whig" party rapidly became, to the 
building up of which he could largely contribute by the 
establishment of a journal of his own, and also accom- 
plish another purpose. Van Buren was recognized 
not only by Jackson himself, but by the bulk of the 
democratic party, as the one who was to be supported 
as Jackson's successor in the presidency, and Noah, 
at this time, was at enmity with Van Buren, to defeat 
whose aspirations was to him then a desirable politi- 
cal object. Although he owed to Van Buren's vote 
his ofl&ce of Surveyor, Mr. Van Buren -afterwards pre- 
vented him from getting the office of State Printer, 
which was then, as it has been ever since, a political 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I35 

•gift. Van Buren's influence secured it for Edwin 
Croswell, a member of a political junta, called the 
"Albany Regency," that had then the control of the 
democratic party of New York, and after this contest 
for the office of State Printer, an animosity arose be- 
tween Noah and Van Buren that continued as long 
as both were living. 

Upon leaving the Courier and Enquirer^ Noah, in 
connection with Thomas Gill, who had been the 
business manager of the Evening Post^ started a new 
paper, called the Evejiivg Star^ which was devoted to 
the '"Whig" party. New York at that time scarcely 
admitted of three evening journals, but through the 
skilful business management of Noah's partner, Gill 
the paper was successful. What Noah foresaw, the 
ultimate triumph of the "Whig" party, came about, 
but not in time to prevent Mr. Van Buren's succeeding 
to the presidency. Alter^ it accomplished its purpose 
by the election of General Harrison as President in 
1840. Noah's partner, Mr. Gill, died, and from the 
want of his efficient services, the circulation of the 
paper fell off; Noah sold it to one of his evening rivals, 
the Commercial Advertiser^ and Governor Seward 
appointed him in 1841 an Associate Judge of the New 
York Court of Sessions. This was an office he was 
x][ualified to fill. He had to some extent studied law 
in Charleston and a general knowledge of the commer- 
cial law was not difficult to master. The office of a crim- 
inal judge, moreover, is one that requires in a greater 
degree than any other judicial station, the tempering 
of justice with mercy, and whilst Noah was an exper- 
ienced man of the world, he was at the same time at 
heart one of the kindest and most benevolent of 
men. 

He had no sooner, however, commenced the dis- 
charge of his judicial duties than Bennett,in the New 



136 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

York Herald^ began to assail and ridicule him. 
Scarcely a day passed, without some short article in 
which he was generally referred to, not by name, but 
by an abbreviated slang phrase, implying a dealer in 
second-hand clothing. His proceedings in court were 
misrepresented, his decisions caricatured and his 
religion frequently referred to, as if it were a matter of 
reproach. This course on the part of Bennett was 
the more remarkable, as it is said that Noah loaned 
Bennett the capital, $100, with which he started the 
Herald zs a small sheet, Bennett being then employed 
on the Courier and Enquirer^ and that it was 20^ 
years before the loan was repaid. Noah himself made 
no complaint, but one of the jurors, attending the 
Court, was so indignant at this unjust aspersion of 
him from day to day, that upon his own motion he 
instituted criminal proceedings and Bennett was 
indicted for libel. When the case came on for trial 
in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, before Judge 
Nathan Kent, Noah appeared, and a scene occurred 
that was quite characteristic of the man. When the 
case was called, he rose, and addressing the court 
said that the attack upon him, by Bennett in the 
Herald^ was the continuation of an old editorial 
quarrel, in which he had been to a considerable 
degree the aggressor and that so far as he was con- 
cerned, he was willing that the prosecution should 
be dropped. But the Judge would not consent. He 
directed the trial, to proceed and there being no 
defence, the jury found a verdict of guilty. 

On the day fixed for the sentence I was in Court, 
and remember that the Judge, with much dignity and 
in an impressive manner, stated that the printing in 
a public journal, from day to day, of such grossly, 
abusive articles, in respect to a Judge who was engaged 
in the discharge of public duties, was not merely an 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 1 37 

offence against him, but one the tendency of which 
was to bring into disrepute the administration of the 
criminal law, and, which, in his opinion, should be 
punished by imprisonment, and that if it were in his 
power he would sentence Bennett to the penitentiary 
for the longest period the law allowed; but he had 
been, he said, overruled by his associates, the two 
aldermen sitting with him, and would pronounce, 
not his own, but their sentence, which was a pecuniary 
fine of a comparatively small amount. 

Noah did not continue in this judicial office very 
long; after leaving it, he started a weekly journal in 
support of Tyler's Administration called the Union^ 
that lasted about a year. He then became, and was 
for a considerable time, the editor of the New York 
Sun. During his connection with the Su7i he edited 
a paper, subsequently known as the Times and Week- 
ly Messenger \ that he continued to be the editor of 
for the rest of his life, and under the title of Noah^s 
Times and Weekly Messenger^ it is still published, 
being now in its fifty-third year. 

In 1840, he published a translation of the Book of 
Jasher, and before it wrote essays on Domestic Econ- 
omy, which appeared in one of the newspapers he edit- 
ed. In 1842, he was elected President of the Hebrew 
Benevolent Society, the institution in commemoration 
•of whose 50th anniversary my address was delivered, 
and continued to be its President until his death. In 
i846,he delivered an address which he afterwards pub- 
lished, to show that the American Indians were the 
descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. In this pro- 
duction he brought together a large amount of mate- 
rial, to prove the resemblance between them and the 
Jews in visage, customs, traditions and religious belief, 
much of which however, had been collected by earlier 
American writers, Adair, Boudinot, Ethan Smith and 



138 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

Priest, in support of the same theory. Noah gave as 
his reason for this address, that previous writers 
upon the same subject, of whom, however, he names 
but one, Adair, though thoroughly informed respect- 
ing the rites, ceremonies, usages and belief of the 
North American Indians were not well acquainted 
with those of the Israelites, in which I thiuk he 
undervalued the extent of the knowledge of some of 
his predecessors. The facts so brought together, he 
deemed convincing; but he was neither an ethnologist 
nor an anthropologist. Fifty years ago, even the 
first of these sciences, had made but little progress, 
and he did not know that distinction of races, or 
racial connection, is established by tests of a very 
different kind from those that he thought so con- 
clusive. In 1845, he published what he called "Glean- 
ings from a Gathered Harvest," which was made up 
of things he had written, and in the same year a 
monograph on the Restoration of the Jews, 

Hammond, in his Political History of New York, 
has given his character. After remarking that much 
had been said and alleged against him, which he> 
Hammond, considered ill founded and undeserved, he 
added that his political, or rather, his party principles 
sat rather loosely,too loosely, upon him ; but that he was 
frank, open, unreserved, generous and kind in his na- 
ture,and that his talents as a wiiter,especially as a wit^ 
were of a high order. He died in the City of New 
York, on the 22na of March, 1851, in the 66th year of 
his age, and while obituary notices of him, and some 
of them quite lengthy, appeared in the other daily 
journals, the New York Herald^ though containing 
editorial obituaries of less important personages, did 
not even notice the fact of his death. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I39 

SamueIv B. H. Judah. 

Another Jewish dramatist and writer was Samuel 
B. H. Judah. He was born in New York in 1799, and 
was of an old colonial Jewish family that had settled 
in this city as early as 1725, and probably before it. 
His father, Benjamin S. Judah, after the close of the 
American Revolution, became one of the most prom- 
inent of the merchants of New York ; a man greatly 
respected for his probity and valued for his enterprise 
and business abilities. He was one of the founders in 
1786, of the New York Tontine, and in business cor- 
porations and in other institutions, held positions of 
trust and confidence. When the war broke out with 
Great Britain in 1812, he was a wealthy man, carrying 
on an extensive business with the West Indies, which 
was suddenly brought to end by the imposition of the 
embargo. As nearly everything he possessed was 
invested in a very profitable maritime commerce, the 
cessation by the embargo of all commercial intercourse 
by sea, came upon him so unexpectedly that he was 
unable to meet his engagements, was compelled to 
fail, and like many of the leading merchants of New 
York at that time, he was irretrievably ruined, 
for although he lived for many years thereafter, 
he never recovered from this overwhelming disaster. 

In consequence, as I suppose, of the limited resour- 
ces of his parents, young Judah had not the benefit of 
a collegiate education, but he acquired at one of the 
schools of the city, some knowledge of the classical 
languages, and was taught French by a well-known 
teacher of the time, named Boeuf. 

As a 3^oung man, he had literary aspirations, which 
were directed towards the Theatre, and in 1820 he 
wrote a melodrama, entitled "The Mountain Torrent," 
which was produced that year, at the Park Theatre, 
with fair success. In 1822, he wrote another melo 



14° JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

drama, "The Rose of Arragon," that was acted at the 
same theatre, and was much more successful. This 
was followed by another play, "The Tale of Lexing- 
ton," and in 1823 ^ benefit was given to him at the 
Park Theatre, at which the two latter plays were acted. 
I know nothing further of his efforts as a dramatist, 
and presume that he had not become sufficiently suc- 
cessful as a playwright to induce the managers of the 
Park Theatre to bring out any more of his productions, 
as in a publication of that year, he complains of Man- 
ager Simpson's want of education, as an explanation 
of his inability to appreciate his, Judah's merits. 

The publication referred to, which appeared in 1823, 
was entitled "Gotham and the Gothamites,a Medley." 
It was a versified production assailing over a hundred 
persons, who were then more or less prominent in the 
City of New York, assuming to be written in the 
interest of virtue and moralit}', but which from the 
motive that led him to write it, and the means he 
employed to bring it into notice, is almost without a 
parallel in the history of defamatory literature. The 
satirical productions of Churchill and of Dr. Wolcott, 
better known as Peter Pindar, were then read more 
than they are now. They were popular, and it was 
doubtless from an ambition to achieve the kind of dis- 
tinction these writers had attained, that led him to 
conceive that a production in verse, grossly calumni- 
ating every one in New York who was at all promin- 
ent, would biiug him into great notoriety. 

But Churchill and Wolcott had, what he had not, 
the literary merit that is shown in the telling couplets 
and biting satire of the former, and the exquisite 
humor and felicitous versification of the latter; in ad- 
dition to which, the first of these clever satirists in 
verse had the redeeming quality, that he could praise 
as heartilv as he could censure. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I4I 

To their eminence, vain as he was, Judah could 
scarcely hope to attain ; but there was another model 
that pointed out to him a way by which he could do 
in prose, what he had not the ability to accomplish in 
verse. A few years previously, in 1819, Gulian C. 
Verplanck, published a political satire, commonly 
known as "The Bucktail Bards, ^' under the no7n de 
plume of Major Pindar Puff. This was a satire in 
easy flowing verse, directed against prominent persons 
in the political part}^ then known as the Clintonians, 
and their distinguished leader, DeWitt Clinton, who 
were satirized by ludicrously exalting them and by 
ridiculing under the form of affected praise the pre- 
tensions of Clinton to scientific knowledge and great 
literary attainment. Unlike Judah's productions 
however, there was nothing malevolent or vindictive 
about it, nor anything in the form of scurrility, or per^ 
sonal abuse. As a distinguishing feature, it had at 
the end of each epistle, copious notes, and as Mr 
Verplanck was a man of learning and of some humor, 
these notes added much to the effect of the verse; and 
it was this method of Mr. Verplanck's in the form of 
notes, that Judah followed, as a more effectual means, 
by which he could abuse and slander the persons he 
attacked. 

The poem was devoid of literary merit. He had 
very little knowledge of metre and lacked an ear for 
distinguishing rhyme. It was consequently marked 
by halting verses and imperfect couplets. There was 
a mawkish sentimentality in many passages that he 
conceived to be poetry, in which moonshine and the 
adjuncts of the theatre, were substituted for nature, 
and there was an effected assumption of morality and 
virtue, that was as false as it was meretricious. 

I have said, that nearly everyone that was then 
prominent in New York, was referred to and slandered ; 



142 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

public officials, politicians, merchants of the highest 
integrity, eminent lawyers, editors, clergymen, book- 
sellers and publishers, literary men, professors in col- 
leges, actors, theatrical managers, prominent military 
men, scholars and artists. No one was omitted, the 
attack upon whom he supposed would create a sensa- 
tion. They were not referred to by name, but the 
first letters of the Christian and surname were given, 
and the omitted letters in each were indicated by 
asterisks or stars, so that it was easy for any one then 
familiar with the prominent people in New York to 
know who was meant, and, after a lapse of seventy 
years, I have been able, out of the one hundred and 
three persons referred to, to identify ninety-eight. 

As the great bulk of the personages mentioned were 
people of character and blameless lives, there could be 
no motive for dragging them before the public, and 
calumniating them, except the one that has been sug- 
gested. As to some of the others, he appears to have 
had an antipathy, or a feeling of personal enmity, which 
was especially the case toward his coreligionist, Noah, 
and what he published respecting him will suffice to 
show the vituperative character of the production. 
He is generally referred to as "this fellow,'' '*A writer 
oflviusy Woolsy Paragraphs and Still -Born Lumps 
of Stupidity." * * * " A pertinacious scribbler 
of insipid garbage." * * * "A smirking j wriggling, 
smiling thing who says his plays were not all hissed, 
which was because his audiences were unable to hiss 
and could only gape, * * * Who damns the worth 
he cannot equal and never blushes except when, un- 
awares, he stumbles upon a truth." 

Immediately upon the publication of the book he 
caused handbills to be posted up throughout the city, 
ofiering a reward for the discovery of the author, and 
wrote anonymous letters to a considerable number of 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 143 

persons he had mentioned in it, which, save in the adap- 
tation of each letter to the particular person addressed, 
informed them generally that the work had appeared ; ot 
the largesaleof copiesof iton the second dayof its pub- 
lication, which was untrue, and earnestly advising them 
to take immediate measures through the newspapers, 
or otherwise, to vindicate their characters from the 
unjust aspersions cast upon them. One of these let- 
ters was sent to Col. W. h. Stone, the editor of the 
Commercial Advertiser^ who, upon reading it, was 
struck with its resemblance to a communication that a 
short time before had been sent to him for insertion 
in his paper. It was a literary review of the seven 
leading authors of America, and as Judah's name was 
the third or fourth on the list, the experienced editor 
came to the conclusion that a review placing Judah 
in so eminent a position and prophesying that from 
the talent he had already displayed, how much might 
be expected from him in the future, could have been 
written by nobody but Judah himself, and Colonel 
Stone laid it aside not intending to publish it. Upon 
comparing this article with the letter he had re- 
ceived, he found that both were in the same iiand- 
writing, and purchasing a copy of the book, he, with 
this proof, went before the Grand Jury and had the 
author and publisher indicted for libel. The arrest 
of both a few days after the publication put a stop to 
any further circulation of the book- and the publicity 
of the criminal proceedings brought to light a number 
of the like kind of letters which Judah had written, 
all being in the same handwriting, which were given 
up to the public authorities. 

The publisher made no defence, but Judah em- 
ployed counsel and under the pretense of absent wit- 
nesses that he required to prove a justification, or a 
matter in mitigation, he got the trial put off for 



144 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

several terms, until at last, Hugh Maxwell, the dis- 
trict attorney, who was an energetic officer, brought 
the cause peremptorily to trial, when, there beings no 
defence, a verdict of guilty was rendered, and a sub- 
stantial fine was imposed, which Judah being unable 
to pay, he was sent to prison. 

He had some pulmonary affection which, being 
augmented by his impriconmeut and the great 
heat of the weather, — it was in the month of August, 
— brought on a severe attack of ilhiess, and as the 
physician of the prison certified that he would not 
probably recover unless he was released, the Governor 
granted him a pardon and he was discharged. A few 
years afterwards he became a lawyer. How the 
author of such a production as " Gotham and the 
Gothamites" succeeded in getting any respectable 
lawyer to certify that he was a man of good moral 
character, which was indispensable to an admission to 
the Bar, I do not know, but he certainly obtained 
such a certificate, as he was admitted an attorney and 
counsellor of the Supreme Court, and was for many 
years a practitioner. 

He was not unfrequently before me in my earlier 
years upon the bench, and exhibited no ability as an 
advocate. He had the habit not uncommon at that 
period with some New Yorkers, of substituting the 
' w'' for " V, " such as *' If the gentleman will wouch 
for it on his weracity ,etc," and this peculiar pronun- 
ciation together with the uuattractiveness of his per- 
sonal appearance, and his lack of ability for construct, 
ing a speech, made an unfavorable impression upon 
jurors, of which, from his earnestness, he appeared to 
be wholly unconscious. 

As an attorney, a gentleman who had much to do 
with him in the transaction of business, described 
him to me as acute, cunning, technical, and not very 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 145 

reliable; notwithstanding which he was able to obtain 
what, in those days when imprisonment for debt was 
allowed, was called a collecting business, by which he 
was able to secure an ample competency, on which he 
lived for the rest of his life. 

He published a work of fiction which was not of any 
particular merit, the scenes of which were laid in the 
earlier part of the Colonial history of New York, the 
name of which I cannot now recall. In his last years 
he was a great sufferer from some chronic disease, and 
died in the City of New York about the time, I think, 
or shortly before the breaking out of the civil war. 

Jonas B. Phii^i^ips. 

This continuation has extended so far beyond what 
I expected, that I will close it with an account of 
another Jewish dramatist of New York. This was 
Jonas B. Phillips, who first appears in connection with 
the drama in 1833, ^^ ^^^ author of a spirited epilogue 
written for the benefit of A. A. Adams, a tragedian of 
great merit, who appeared that night in John Howard 
Payne's tragedy of " Oswald of Athens," at the close 
of which Mrs. Hughes delivered Phillip's epilogue, 
with great effect. 

In 1838, he produced a melodrama called " Cold 
Stricken," and though it had the attraction of Mrs. 
Barnes and Judah, the versatile actor before referred 
to, it was not very successful, but was appreciated by 
the managers, who gave the author a benefit. 

He afterwards wrote a play called " Camillus," and 
a drama, ' ' The Evil Eye, ' ' which was produced at 
the Bowery Theatre in New York with great effect, 
and had what is called a run. 

He had, I think, some position in connection with 
the business management of this theatre, and pro- 
duced other dramas there. These were of a spectacu- 



146 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

lar kind, in which as a playwright he was very suc- 
cessful. He was much esteemed among the theatrical 
people with whom he was associated, and in 1835 a 
complimentary benefit was given to him in that 
theatre, when several prominent actors and actresses 
and distinguished musical artists appeared and made it 
a success. After this, he withdrew from all connection 
with the theatre, studied law, and in the course of 
years became Assistant District Attorney for the City 
of New York. 

It came within my judicial duties to preside fre- 
quently in the Court of Sessions in the absence of the 
Recorder, so that I saw much of Phillips, who was an 
honest, a most industrious and an efficient public 
officer, for whom I felt a personal regard. He filled 
this ofiice during the term of several district attorneys, 
and died in the City of New York about fifteen years 
ago. 

Having mentioned the Court of Sessions, I may 
appropriately refer to another officer of that Court, of 
the Jewish persuasion, Jacob Hays, the High Con- 
stable, who as the head of the constabulary force of 
the City of New York for nearly half a century, had 
an influence and control over the criminal classes, 
like that exercised by Townsend, the celebrated Bow 
Street ofiicer, for so many years in lyondon. Hays was 
a short, stout, thick-set man of unswerving honesty, 
untiring energy and indomitable courage. Scovill 
refers to him as the most remarkable man that New- 
York ever produced, and certainly within his own 
sphere of activity that city has never had one like him, 
before or since. The criminal classes both feared and 
respected him, which they well might, for he was the 
very embodiment of that fine characteristic — a high 
sense of duty, and the name which they gave him of 
*'01d Hays " was for years a " terror to evil-doers." 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 147 

The act re-organizing the police force of New York 
dispensed with the office of High Constable, with this 
reservation, however, that in view of his long and 
faithfnl services, he was allowed to retain both the 
title and emoluments of the office for the rest of his 
life. The only duty under the act that was left to 
him, was to sit in his wonted place in the Court of 
Sessions, below the Judge, during the sitting of the 
Court, which he discharged with unfailing regularity 
up to an advanced age; an interesting and picturesque 
figure, with his bright, penetrating eye scanning every 
one in the audience and turning it upon each person 
as he entered. When the loud call of the crier 
announced that the sitting was over, and that every one 
might depart, the venerable High Constable turning 
towards me would say, with an old-fashioned dignity 
of manner, '^ Have I kept order, sir, in the Court?" 
and receiving the usual affirmative answer, he would 
retire with the firm step and steady carriage of a 
veteran athlete, and with his retiring figure before my 
mind, I am admonished that the period has arrived to 
close my account of the Settlement of the Jews in 
Nortli America. 



APPENDICES. 



APPENDIX I. 

Documents Relating to the Arrival and Settlement 
OF THE Jews in Delaware. 

From the Minutes of the Adm'n of Jean Paul Jac- 
quet, Vice-Director at the Delaware, and his Council, 28th 
Dec, 1655: 

Tieaty made for trade with the Indians on behalf of the 
community living at Fort Casimir^ which they willingly 
assented to, and each subscribed to a subsidy with the excep- 
tion of Isaac Israel and Isaac Cardoso, who refused to give 
their consent and prepared to leave the river and give up 
their trade, than to assist with other good inhabitants in 
maintaining the peace of this highway. Document Relating 
to the Colonial History of the State of New York. XII p. 
136. Among the subscribers is Master Jacob. 

On June 16, 1656, '* Isaak Israel appears against Jan Flam- 
man and presents the following petition : 
To the Honbl. Vice-Director and his Council residing in 
Fort Casimir 

Showeth with due reverence the petitioner, Isaak Israel, 
that he, the petitioner, made an agreement with Captain Jan 
Flamman to bring him, the petitioner and his goods, to the 
South River ; that he, petitioner, promised to pay to him, 
Jan Flamman, one anker of brandy, and satisfied him also 
before the departure: that, as he shipped two pieces of duffel 
more than was agreed; he, the petitioner, had promised, to 
give one beaver more and above the foregoing ; but that, as 
by great improvidence and in fair weather the bark stranded 
during the night and remained there for a considerable time, 
whereby they were compelled to unship all the goods from the 
said bark and to bring them ashore, during the time they 
remained there, there was drunk and eaten by the ship's crew, 
as well as by passengers, of his, the petitioner's, goods — one 
anker of brandy and 15 pieces of cheese; likewise was his 
duffel much spoiled as in consequence of the stranding, tents 



152 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

and shipping places had been made of it. These damages can 
hardly be borne by me, even though the same had occurred 
through bad weather or other misfortune. It is estimated by 
me as follows : 

lor one anker of brandy — 8 beavers, - fl 64 

15 cheeses at 5 fl the piece, ~ ~ 7S 

for damage to the duffel, as the same has been dis- 
colored by rain and sunshine and otherwise, - 200 



Total amount, - - - fl 339 

If any one should be of opinion that this damage was 
calculated too high, the petitioner promises lOO guilders and 
more to him, who shall replace his goods at his valuation, 
which they had at the time of shipping at the Manhattans, 
and while he would and must be well satisfied with the great 
loss of ship and goods if the mishap had occurred by una- 
voidable necessity, yet as he is still asked for the beaver, which 
he promised for the two pieces of duffel, besides all damage 
and loss which he has sustained, this quite unreasonable mat- 
ter has induced him, the petitioner, to push his claim, there, 
fore, he, the petitioner, turns to your honor, and requests 
that by your Honor he may be assisted and helped to his just 
and lawful claim, which doing, etc.," was signed, Isaque Israel. 

The defendant answers that he has no knowledge of the 
points in dispute ; was lying in his bunk, and acc'g to the 
statement of Captain Martyn, there was still 18 fathoms of 
water when he went to lie down in his cabin. As regards the 
brandy this was broached with the good and free will of the 
pl'ff, as the crew were wet and cold ; he said, " Drink as 
much as is necessary, if that is empty you can get more; the 
stuff is lost anyway." As to the cheese, the plaintiff has dealt 
them out voluntarily to every one. 

Whereas from these verbal discussions no certainty can be 
had, it is ordered that the parties adduce proof of their asser- 
tions. 

On the 23d of June, Isaak Israel against Jan Flamman. The 
pl'ff produces the following affidavit: To-day, date as 
below, appeared before me A. Hudde, Secy appointed by 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I53. 

the Hon'ble Lord and high Council, upon request of Isaak 
Israel, the Worshipful Lucas Dirco and Abraham Rycke. 

They declared together and each for himself and made 
affidavit, as they do hereby, that it is true, that they, being on 
board the bark, called "deFenix," between the 14th and 
15th of April, towards daybreak, weather and wind being 
fair, ran ashore and remained fast, and that during the time 
they sat there, one anker of brandy of the aforesaid Isack 
Israel was drank out and some cheeses eaten, but the number 
is not well known to them, as all the drinkables and eateableS^ 
were taken for the satisfaction of their wants, without re- 
gard as to whom they belonged. Likewise, we know, that 
there were tents to lay under,and hammocks to lay in, made of 
his, Isack Israel's, duffels. They gave as reason of their 
knowledge that the affiants had been on board the bark dur- 
ing the time, which, as above written, we the undersigned 
declare to be true and truthful, and are willing to confirm, if 
necessary, with our oaths, and have signed this in presence 
of the below-named witnesses. Done at Fort Cassimir this 
i6th of June, 1656, in the S. R. N. N. It was signed 
Abraham Riycke, Luyck Dirco. On the margin stood, as 
witnesses, Jan Juriaensen, Jan Eckhoff. Having heard the 
arguments of the parties and their reasons pro and contra 
having been well stated, we cannot but judge that the matter 
necessarily must lead to a cpnsiderable increase of lawsuits, 
which again will give rise to others. The parties are advised, 
therefore, to arrange the matter in friendship,but if they cannot 
agree, they shall address us again. This they accepted. Doc. 
Relating to Colonial History of New York, XII. p. 147-8. 
Doc. R. to the H. of Dutch and Swedish Settlements on the 
Delaware. By B. Firnow. 

Letter Wm. Beeckman to Stuyvesant, (XII, p. 447.) 
Altena. the 5th of Dec. 1663. 

Gentlemen. — I heard at Nev Amstel yesterday that Mr. 
d'Henojossa would send as quickly as possible a savage to your 
Hon'ble Worships, his Honor arrived here in the ship " de Pur_ 
merlaender Kirck," on the evening of the 3d inst., together with 



154 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

Peter Alrichs and Israel, who went away with Miss Pnntz, as 
members of the high Council and 150 souls.'' 

(Alexander d'Henojossa was appointed Director of the D. W. I. 
Co. colony on the South River. XII., p. 450.) 

" The fur trade has been recommended to Mr. Peter Alrichs, 
who has brought along for it 200 pieces of duffels, blankets and other 
goods nec'y for ic. Alrichs is to trade'at New Amstil, the Honble 
Councillor Israel at or near Passajongh, etc." Dec. 28, 1663. 

Census of Responsible Housekeepers and their family at vari- 
ous places on the Delaware River in 1680. (XII., p. 646-8.) 
In St. Jones and Duck Creek : 
Mr. Lsaack, 3 in family. 
Richard Levy, 2 •' •* (P. 647.) 



APPENDIX II. 

Notes on the History of the Jews in England and 
THE American Colonies. 

On September 12th, 1883, Dr. Felsenthal, of Chicago, sent 
a letter to Judge Chas. P. Daly, of New York, expressing his 
thanks for, and his appreciation of the admirable address 
which the honorable Judge had delivered a few months pre- 
vious, at the laying of the corner-stone of the new Hebrew 
Orphan Asylum, in New York, and which address had after- 
wards been published in pamphlet form. After the assurance 
of his gratification and thanks, Dr. Felsenthal continued : 

" Only in order to show you with what attention I have 
read your address, I beg to say that it seems to me you were 
not quite correct when you stated (on page 8) that * Jews 
were not entitled to vote for members of Parliament.' This, it 
appears to me, conveys an error. By an Act of Parliament, 
passed 1740 — 13 Geo. II c 7 — which Act lies at this moment 
before me, — Jews living seven years in any of the American 
colonies were declared to be fully emancipated, and all rights 
of natives were granted to them, and they were deemed, ad- 
judged, and taken to be his Majesty's natural born subjects of 
this Kingdom, to all intents, constructions, and purposes, as if 
they, and ever one of them, had been, or were born within 
this Kingdom.' Section 3 of this Act provided that in the 
oath of allegiance to be taken, Jews may omit from this oath 
the words ' upon the true faith of a Christian.' You see that 
this Act, so strangely overlooked by all historians of Judaism, 
though it is probably the very first legislative enactment in all 
Christendom in favor of Jewish * emancipation,' in favor of 
granting perfect equality before the laws to the confessors of 
the Jewish faith — left nothing to be desired by the Jews in 
the American colonies in regard to their juridical and political 
status. 

It would now be of interest to learn whether practically the 



156 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

law was carried out, or whether it remained a dead letter r 
whether it proved to be a stimulant to bring at that time a 
considerable Jewish immigration to these shores, or not, etc. 
An examination of the Court Reports of the Colonies, in as 
far as still accessible, might also contribute some knowledge 
on these points. 

The historian of American Judaism will also have to deal 
with the curious fact that, while the Jews in the Colonies 
were admitted to full citizenship already in 1740, yet in some 
of ' the States ' they were excluded from the enjoyment of the 
rights of citizenship by constitutional provisos. Thus. f. i., 
according to the old Constitution of Maryland only ' Chris- 
tians,' or ' Trinitarians ' — I do not remember which the word 
was — were eligible to State offices, until some fifty years ago a 
new Constitution was adopted. In North Carolina, until a 
few years ago, only Protestants could be elected to State 
offices. If I am not mistaken, all the States have now finally 
based ther constitution and laws on this point upon a true 
Jeffersonian basis, and have totally done away with the med- 
iaeval idea of placing the Jews upon the level of pariahs. But 
a query permit me: Is it not still held as a judicial maxim by 
some of the American jurists that 'Christianity is a part of the 
common law of our country?' 

I hope, dear sir, you will excuse this letter. Please con- 
sider it as a tribute of thanks and of respect which I bring to 
you. With the highest regards, etc., etc. 

B. Felsenthal. 

Judge Daly's Reply. 

84 Clinton Place, 
New York, November 30th, 1883. 

Dear Sir. — I owe you an apology for not answering your, 
letters before. They were addressed to me during my Sum- 
mer vacation, when I was absent, and since my return to this 
city, I have not had leisure until now to reply to them. 

I infer from your letter, that you have not read the account 
I gave of the settlement of the Jews in North America, in an 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 1 57 

address I delivered eleven years ago (1872), on the fiftieth 
anniversay of the Hebrew Benevolent Society, and which, as 
subsequently written out by me, and augmented, was pub- 
lished in 1872, in successive numbers of the Jewish Times 
of this city. If you had, you would have seen that I referred 
to Tomlin's Law Dictionary, Art. " Jews," 4th London edi- 
tion as authority for the statement that in 1737 (erroneously 
printed in my last address as 1728), Jews were not entitled 
to vote for members of Parliament. As Tomlin's Law Dic- 
tionary is a book for which you might have to seek in a law- 
yer's library, I will give you the passage in which he states the 
disabilities that Jews were under in England, as late as 1835, 
when the fourth edition of his work was published. It is as 
follows : " A Jew is prevented from sitting in Parliament 
holding any office, civil or military, under the Crown, or 
any situation in corporate bodies. He may be excluded from 
practising at the bar, or as ' an attorney, proctor, or notary, 
from voting at elections, from enjoying any exhibition in 
either university, or from holding some offices of inferior im- 
portance." 

The Act of Parliament of 1740, to which you refer (13 
Geo. lie. 7, Evans Stat. Vol. I., p. 10), had not much effect- 
l/nder it, foreigners who had resided seven years in a British 
colony, without being absent at any time over two months, 
might be naturalized; and if such foreigner were a Jew, he 
might be naturalized without taking the Sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, under 7 Jac I. c. 11, and in his case, under 
this Act, the words in the abjuration oath, " on the true faith 
of a Christian " might be dispensed with ; but the naturaliza- 
tion could only be obtained by applying for an Ac- 
of Parliament, and a certificate had to be obtained from 
the Home Secretary before a bill could be introduced 
that the person applying was of good character, etc. 
And as the procuring of the passage of an Act of 
Parliament was " attended with a great deal of trouble 
and some expense," very few Jews availed themselves 
of it, a fact ascertained by an enquiry made by Parlia- 
ment in 1754 (Smollett's "History of England, " B. HI. c III 



158 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

5, X.). As this Act of 1740 applied only to persons who had 
resided the prescribed number of years in British Colonies, 
an act was introduced in 1753 (26 Geo. 11 C. 2) by which 
any foreign Jew could be naturalized upon like conditions. It 
passed the House of Lords without opposition, but was furi- 
ously assailed in the House of Commons. It was carried, 
however by the power of the Ministry. This Act, which is 
historically known as " The Jew Bill," continued only for a 
few months, for it was received by the nation, the historians 
tell us, with " horror and execration." Those who had voted 
for it were denounced by the people. The Bishop of Norwich 
was insulted at the communion, and in the public streets ; 
petitions poured in from the cities for its repeal, and on the first 
day of the next session, a bill to repeal it was introduced and 
hurriedly passed with the assent of both parties. This intol- 
erance in respect to the Jews continued until 1825, when an 
Act was passed (9, Geo. I. V. c. 27) relieving persons to be 
naturalized thereafter from the obligation of taking the Sac- 
rament of the Lord's Supper. 

So far from the legislation to which you refer having brought 
about any tolerant feeling towards thejews,the repeal of this Ac- 
of 1753 ^v^s rather approved of than otherwise by Blackstone (i 
Blackst. Com. 375), and in 1786, Lord Chancellor Thurlow 
decided that the bequest of one Isaacs, who left ;;^ 1,200 to 
found an annuity for the support of a synagogue, was void, 
that the Crown should decide to what charitable use the an- 
nuity could be applied ; and the Crown directed that ;^i,ooo 
of it should be paid to the treasurer of a foundling hospital, to 
be applied towards the support of a preacher and the instruc- 
tion of the children under the care of the hospital, in the 
Chrisiiaji religion (Da Costa v. De Pays, Ambler's Rep. 228, 
Note I, and see 7 Vesey, p. 61), which was the Government's 
interpretation of the testator's intention. 

The account I have given you of the Act of 1740, of the 
hasty repeal of the law that was enacted afterwards to enable 
Jews to be naturalized under it, and of the intolerant spirit of 
the English people towards the Jews up to the end of the firs 
quarter of the present century, will, I think, be a sufficient 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA I59 

reply to your inquiry respecting the effect of the Act of 1740- 
In 1737, a question arose in the colony of New York,whether 
Jews could vote for Members of the House of Assembly, it 
appearing in an exciting election that several Jews had voted 
for one of the candidates. The question was brought before 
the House of Assembly, and counsel was heard upon it on 
both sides, after which a resolution that they could not vote 
for Members of the Legislature was unanimously passed by 
the House, which had all the force of a statute. It was in 
these words : '' Resolved, That it not appearing to this 
House, that persons of the Jewish religion have a right to be 
admitted to vote for Parliament men in Great Britain, it is 
the unanimous opinion of this House, that they ought not to 
be admitted to vote for representatives in this colony." 

Before the passage of the Reform Bill and the repeal of the 
Corporation and Test Acts, which removed so many of the 
Jewish disabilities, it was never definitely settled what were 
the exact civil rights of Jews born in England. 

In 1684, it was agreed before the King's Bench by the At- 
torney General, in the case of the East India Company v. -^/ 
Sands (2 Shower's Rep. 371), that all Jews in England were 
under an implied license, which the King might revoke, the 
effect of doing which would be that they would then become 
aliens. Even so great a Judge as Lord Hardwicke, held in 
1744 that a bequest for the maintenance of an assembly or 
synagogue for the reading of the Jewish Law was void, be- 
cause the Jewish religion was not tolerated in England, but 
only connived at by the legislation (3 Swanston's Rep., p. 489, 
Notes). 

It was conceded that a Jew born in England, especially of 
parents who were also born in England, was a British subject; 
but whether he could lawfully hold real estate, was doubted. 
In 1 81 8, Sir Samuel Romilly said that Jews born in England 
were as much entitled to hold land as any other natives, and that 
no one had ever objected to a title on the ground that the owner 
was a Jew, and many eminent lawyers and judges had before 
expressed themselves to the same effect; and yet, down to 
he removal of all disabilities in 1853, this point was still doubted < 



l6o JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

under the statutes or ordinances of the 54th and 55 th Henry 
III. (a. D. 1269), which declared that no Jew should hold a 
freehold, and was^never definitively settled. Being a British 
subject and entitled to hold land would not, in itself, enable 
a Jew to vote for Members of Parliament at the period 
named (1737). Persons then entitled to vote for Members of 
Parliament were burgesses of the town or city represented by 
the member; or in the counties, persons who had a freehold 
estate yielding forty shillings annually; or those who enjoyed 
the right under some special franchise. Now, if a Jew were 
admitted to be a burgess of the town or city, or if he had a 
freehold estate yielding forty shillings annually, he would still, 
before voting for Member of Parliament, have to take the ab- 
juration oath, if it was required (Watson on Sheriffs, p. 329). 
This oath was " on the true faith of a Christian,'' except in a 
few particular cases where these words, by statute, might be 
omitted, and this oath no Jew could take. This continued to 
be the law until the Act of the 8th and 9th of Victoria C. 
52, by which these words, "on the true faith of a Christian," 
might be dispensed with, where the person swore that he pro- 
fessed thejewish religion, and nad conscientious scruples against 
taking the oath in the previous form. What Tomlins therefore 
meant when he says in the extract that I have given you, that 
a Jew could not vote at elections was, that he could not, be- 
cause he could not take the abjuration oath, which might be 
required of him. 

The Jews in England were the very last to raise any ques- 
tions, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, about 
their civil rights. All they wanted was to be left undisturbed 
in their business, their families, and in their religious worship- 
They knew how hostile the English people were to them' 
especially after 1755. and being secure in their business, and 
undisturbed in their religion and their families they were ex- 
ceedingly careful to avoid everything that might direct public 
attention to them as a body, or in any way excite the general 
anti-Jewish prejudice. So mindful and careful were they to 
divert any outburst of popular feeling from themselves, that 
during the Lord George Gordon riots, in 1780, the Jews in 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 



i6i 



Houndsditch and Duke's Place wrote upon their shutters : 
"This house is a true Protestant." 

I trust, my dear sir, that you will find in the above state, 
ments all the information you desire in your letter. 
I am, dear sir, very truly yours, 

Chas. p. Daly. 
B. Felsenthal. 



APPENDIX III. 

On Some i8th Century Strictures on the Jews 
OF New York. 

There is an unfavorable statement respecting the Jews of 
New York, in the middle of the last century, in a small work 
published in London in 1765, called a "Concise Account of 
Noith America, etc., etc., by Major Robert Rogers."* It is 
contained in his description of the City of New York, and is 
as follows: '* This city abounds with many wealthy mer- 
chants, who carry on a large trade to foreign parts and are 
observed to deal very much upon honor, excepting some Jews 
who have been tolerated to settle there, having a synagogue in 
the city, who sustain no very good character, being many of 
them selfish and knavish and (where they have an opportunity) 
are an oppressive and cruel people." 

As this statement, so far as I have been able to ascertain, is 
unsupported by any other evidence, I have been at some 
trouble to gather what now can be collected respecting Major 
Rogers, the author of this book, as the weight to be attached 
to so serious a charge against a class of merchants of a parti- 
cular religious denomination would depend upon the writer's 
means of information, and as we do not know what means he 
had, we would naturally be influenced in considering what 
reliance could be placed upon his statement by what is known 
respecting his character. 

He was born about 1730, in Dumbarton, New Hampshire. 
His father was an Irishman, being one of the early settlers of 
that place. In early life he became distinguished in Indian 
warfare, and was the commander of a Corps called '' Rogers' 



*A concise Account of North America, containing a Description 
of the several British colonies on that continent; including the Island 
of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, etc., as to their situation, extent, 
climate, soil, produce, etc. ; to which is subjoined an account of the 
several nations and tribes of Indians, by Major Robert Rogers 
London, 1765. 8vo. 



JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 163 

Rangers," among whom were some of the hardiest sons of 
New England, General Stark of Bennington, Samuel Putnam 
and Ebenezer Webster, father of the celebrated Daniel 
Webster. In command of this corps, he served in the French 
and Indian war, and as a military leader was a man of courage 
and capacity, being successful upon two occasions in 1758^ 
over great odds. 

After the French and Indian War he went to England, and 
during his residence there underwent considerable privations. 
He managed, however, to borrow money to enable him to print 
his journal and the book above referred to, which he dedicated 
to the King. The work was commended by the London 
Monthly Review, the reviewer, in all probability, getting what 
knowledge he had of North America from what he found in 
the book. The dedication to the King proved of service, and 
Rogers was appointed Governor of Michillinacinock. He was 
there accused of plotting to plunder the fort and to join the 
French, and was sent to Montreal in chains, where he was tried 
by court-martial. What was the result of the trial I do not 
know, but he was in England again in 1769, when he was 
imprisoned for debt, and afterwards, according to his own 
account, was in the service of the Dey of Algiers, and fought 
in two battles. When the American revolution broke out he 
was in America, where, although making loud professions of 
patriotism, he was by the order of Washington arrested and 
imprisoned as a spy, and afterwards released by Congress upon 
his parole. When set at liberty he broke his parole, and 
joining the royal troops organized a corps called the " Royal 
Rangers," of which he was the Colonel, a corps that was 
celebrated during the contest. In 1778 he was proscribed 
and banished by an Act of New Hampshire, after which he 
went to England, and of his subsequent career I know nothing, 
except that it is said that he died there about 1800. 

To break a parole is regarded by mankind as the most dis - 
honorable act that an individual can commit. All recognize 
that this relief to the horrors of war would not continue to 
exist unless from its universal observance. The most depraved 
recognize this, and even savages. A military man, therefore, 



164 JEWS IN NORTH AMERICA 

especially, who would break his parole, is one thereafter not 
to be trusted or believed in anything. I should attach no 
weight to the statement of the dishonored soldier respecting 
the Jewish merchants of New York at the period referred to, 
unless it was supported by some other evidence, and as I have 
already said, I know of none. On the contrary, the little that 
I have been able to find respecting the Jews of the City of New 
York at that time is favorable. Judge Thomas Jones*, the 
Tory historian of the American Revolution, in describing 
what he calls " the golden age of New York,"' which was this 
very period, says: "Even the very Jews all lived in perfect peace 
and harmony, enjoying the company and conversation of each 
other, and upon all occasions returning mutual acts of friend- 
ship, kindness and affection.' 

It may have been that this impecunious man, for such 
Jones appears to have been from all we know respecting him, 
borrowed money from one or more of these Jewish merchants, 
and was subjected to imprisonment, as was then allowed, to 
compel the repayment of it.f 

CHAS. P. DALY. 

*Jones' History of New York during the Revolutionary war 
Vol, I, p. 2. 

fThere is some evidence, but it is of a slight and indefinite kind, 
that there were some Jews who may have been in New York 
during this period, who were referred to unfavorably. It is con- 
tained in an advertisement in a New York journal of the date of 
September 5th, 1756, of Solomon Hayes, a Jewish West India 
merchant of the city, stating that "several scandalous Jews" were 
trying to hurt his "character and credit' 'as they had "done already,'" 
in which he offers a reward of 100 pistoles, a large one at that 
time, being over $300, to any person who would give intelligence 
as to "who they were and where they were;" and as he did not 
know them or where they were, they may not have been residents 
of New York. 



I N DEX- 



Abrahams, Joseph, 72. 

Adair, 137, 138. 

Adams, A. A , 145, John 63. John 
Quincv, 63, 116, 125. 

Adler, Prof. Cyrus 54; note 58. 

Agriculture, Jewish, 92, 94, 

Albany, 20, 22, 126; note 19; see 
Orange (Fort) 

Algiers, 107, 121. 

Ambrosius. Moses — held in de- 
fault of payment, 7, 23; note 3, 

Amsterdam, centre of religious tol- 
eration, 3. 

Andres, Governor, 26. 

Antwerp, treaty of, 3. 

Ararat, city of refuge, founded by 
M. M. Noah, 129, 132. 

Arnold, historian, 83, 84. 

Astor, John Jacob, employed by 
Hayman Levy, 53, 54. 

Bahia (St. Salvador) captured 5 — 
resources and religious tolera- 
tion, 5. — Jews settle there 5-6 

Baltimore, 64, 126. 

Bancroft, George xiv, 13, 62; note 
67 

Barbary States, ic6. 107, iii, 121. 

Barnes, Mrs., 102, 106, 119, 145. 

Barsimson, Jacob, protests against 
taxation,, 17, 18, 19, 23; note 16. 

Beekman, William, 34. 153. 

Bellamont, Lord, antagonized 28; 
assisted by Jews, 28. 

Benjamin, Abraham, jS; note 84 — 
Isaac 78, note 84 

Benjamin of Tudela, 107. 

Bennett, James Gordon, 135, 

Blackstone, 158, 

Boeuf. 139. 

Bonan, Simon, freeman, 27, note 25. 

Booth, historian, 39. 

Bornal, Raphael, 68, note 75. 

Boston, 81, 86, 90, 91, 126; notes 
87, 91. 

Boudinot, 137. 



Brackenridge, 62; note 66. 

Brazil — settlements in, xiii, — Dutch 
occupation of xiii, xv, xvi, xvii, 5,6. 

Breda, treaty of, 49; note 54. 

Brodhead, Mr., cited, i. 

Brown, (?) 103, David, 82; note 88, 
Saul, complains about trade 
restrictions, 24; minister of con- 
gregation, 28. 

Brugere, Madame, 126, 

Bryson, David, 44. 

Bueno, Joseph, permitted to trade 
in N. Y., 27 note 25. 

Buffalo, 131, 132. 

Burgher Guard, Jews in 16, 17. 

Burial grounds, 34 — permission for 
extension of land, 35 — descrip- 
tion of first cemetery, 35; notes 
41, 43, 46 — in Newport, 81, 82, 
86, 91. 

Butcher, Joseph Isaacs, 49; note 54 

Cadillac, La Motthe, on sects, 26. 

Cadiz, 108, 109 

Campsnnel, Mordecai, 82. 

Cardoso, Benjamin 22; note 18 — 
Isaac, 22; note 18, 151. 

Cardoza, Abraham Nunez, 76, note 
82. 

Cari^al, Isaac, Rabbi, 81 ; note 85. 

Casimir, Fort, 151. 

Census of Jews in Barbary States, 
121, in Florida, 75, note 82; in 
Georgia, note 82; New England, 
note 82, in Newport, 79, New 
York, 52, 58. 75: note 82; North 
Carolina, 75; note 82; Pennsyl- 
vania, note 82; South Carolina, 
note 82; in U. S. 97. 

Characterization of Jews, 87, 97. 

Charity of an early Jewish settler, 
2, 23. 

Charlemagne, 88. 

Charleston, Jews settle in. 70 71, 
75, 76, 89, 91, 99, 105, 107, 108, 
118; note 82. 



i66 



INDEX 



Charter of liberties and privileges, 

25- 

Churchill, 140. 

Clay, Henry, 125. 

Clinton, De Witt, 141 — Governor, 
51 — Lady, 51. 

Coen, Jacob, 20. 

Cohen, Aaron, 78 ; note 84 — 
Abigail, David, Grace, Hannah, 
68; note 75 — Isaac, 68, 78; notes 
75 and 84— J. Meyers, 31; note 
32 — Moses, 76; note 82 — Nathar, 
Solomon, 78; note 84 — Solomon, 
M., 60 

Columbus, xi, xiii. 

Commerce, its influence upon 
religion, xiv. 

Constitution of U. S., '7. 

Costa, D.. 31; note 32, Jacob, 68 
note 75. 

Covi^ell, 102. 

Cowyn, Jacob, taxed, 19; note 16. 

Cravi'ford. Wm. H., 125. 

Croswell, 135. 

Curacoa colonized by Jews, 9, 14. 

Curtis, George William, 'j']\ note 83. 

Da Costa. Anthony, 65 — Daniel 
Nunez, 45 — Isaac, 76; note 82 — 
Joseph, 19, 2j; note 16 — vs. De 
Pays, 158. 

Daly, Judge, his address before 
the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, v, 
tirst publication of his work, v, 
its merits, v, xi. 

Daniels A. G., fc'6 note 91. 

David, Joshua, Sr and Jr., 49, note 

54- 

Davis, Richard, 40, 41. 

Dandrade, (D'Andrada?) Fusil- 
ador. 19, note 16. 

D'Andrada (Dandrada .'') Salvator, 
denied the right of buying real- 
estate 18,19; note 16,20 — applies 
for citizens' rights, 23, 48, note 

54. 
De Beauchamp, xvii. 
Decatur, Commodore, 109, iii, 

112, 113, 114, 115. 
De Fonseca, Joseph Nunez, founds 

a colony in Cura' oa, 9. 
Dekay, Jaccb, 39, 40. 



De Ulan, Jan, 9. 

De La Motta, Dr. Plmanuel, 72, 

note 79. 
De Lancey Oliver, 51. 
De La Simon. Abraham, fined for 

violating Sunday laws, 11, 23, 

note ID. 
Delaware, 22, 151, 154. 
Delaware River, see South River. 
De Lucena, Abraham p. 10 15-- 

applies for charter, petitions for 

trade, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24— trades to 

Lisbon, 28, 29. 
De Lyon (Delyon?), Abraham, 66. 

68, 70, 73. note 75. 
De Meyer, William, 41, 42. 
De Olivers, David, 76, note 82. 
Depass, Abraham, 72 — David 

Lopass, 68, note 75. 
Depivea, Aaron, 68, note 75. 
De Sille, Nica.'^ius, on Jews trading 

on the Delaware River, 20, note 

17- 
De So'a, Abraham, loi. 
Disagreements between English 

and Dutch, 16. 
Discovery of America, xii. 
D'Medena, Isaac. 31, note 32. 
Dongan, Governor, petitioned by 

Jet^s for more religious freedom, 

25 — not granted, 26, 27, note 25. 
Dutch occupation of Brazil, xiii, 

xvii. 
Dutch West India Company, xv, 

5' 6, 9 

Editor's work explained, ix. 
Eleazar.Eleaz-r. 78; note 84 — Isaac, 

78, 82, 83, note 84, 
Elias, David, naturalized, 455 note 

49- 

England, excludes Jews from legis- 
lature, 47. 64. note 54. 

English Jews, 97, 108, 157 -161. 

Esopus, 22. 

Expulsion of Jews from France, 
Spain and Portugal, 2. 

Felsenthal, Dr. R..155. 

Fischell, Kev. Dr. A., xiv, 31, 80, 

notes 32 and 85. 
Flamman, Jan , 1 51-153. 



INDEX. 



167 



Fletcher, Governor, 27-Florida, 75. 
Fonseca, Joseph Nunez de, 9. 
Franc (Fraiici ?) Jacob, 78, note 

84. 
France, 96, 97, 99, 108. 
Franklin, Dr., 104. 
Franks, Abraham, 31; note 32 — 

Jacob, 31, 34, 43: note 32, 
Frera, David, petitions fur trade, 

19, 23, note 16. 

George I. issues an edict of natural- 
ization. 49; note 54 

George II. act of, <J2, 154, 157.' 

George IV. act of, 158. 

Georgia— Jews in, 64 — prejudice 
against Jews, 65 — Moravians and 
Scotchmen in, 67, 75J note 82 

Germany, 88 , 97. 

Gibraltar, no. 

Gideon, lienjamin, 68, note 75. 

Gill, Thomas, 135. 

Gilman, S., 75, note 82. 

Gomez, Abraham, 54 — Daniel,3o,4i , 
42, 43, 44 — David, 30, 41, 42 — 
Ibaac, Jr. 44, 54, note 58— Louis, 
trafifics to Lisbon, 29, 34, 42 — 
Mordecai, 30, 31; note 32, 41, 
42,43; note 43— Moses, jr. 31; 
note 32. 

Gomperts, Joseph, 70. 

Gordon riots, 160, 

Gould, N. H, Esq., 78. note 84. 

Grand Island, 95, 128, 130, 131, 
note 92, 

Gratz, Joseph, 61— Michael, 60, 
Rebecca— the supposed character 
in Scott's Ivanhoe, 61 -contrary 
views, 62. 

Hackett, James H., 119. 

Hammond, 138. 

Harby, Isc.ac, 75, note 82 

Hardwicke, Lord. 159. 

Harris^jU Geueral, 135. 

Hart Abraham, 70 —Bernard, 

KmanuelB.,55, 56- Rev. Mr. 57. 
Hartford, 91. 
Hays, Jcicob, 45, 146; note 49 — 

Judah, 31; noic 32-Aioses, 81, 90; 

note 87 — Solomon, 31, 164; note 

32. 



Hendricks, Benjamin, 54 — Harman 

44- 
Henricque, Jacob Cohen, 19, 23; 

note 16. 
Henriquez, Isaac, freeman, 27; 

note 25 — Isaac Nunez, 68; note 

75— Shem, 68, note 75. 
Henry III (act) 160. 
Historical Society, German (of N. 

Y.) xii. — New York, xiv. — Jewish 

viii, ix. 8, 49, 54, 58, 62, 73; 

notes 4. 54. 58, 62, 66 and 67. 
Holland, 2 — deaf to Stuyvesant's 

anti Jewish prejudices, 9, 88, 91; 

note 5. 
Hollander, J. H., on John Lum- 

brozo, 8, 62; notes 4, 66. 
Hosack, Mr., note 120. 
Hughes, John, note 120— Mrs. 145. 
Hunter, Governor, petitioned by 

D'Lucena, 28. 
Ulan, Jan de, 9. 
Independence, declaration of, 83, 

118. 
Indians descendants of lost tribes 

of Israel, 131, 137, 138. 
Injustice, in New York colony, 51. 
Inquisition, the xiii. 
Intolerance of Spain, 2. 
Introduction xi. 
Ireland (author^, 106. 
Irving Washington, and Rebecca 

Gratz, 61 . 
Isaacs, 158 — Abraham naturalized, 

45; note 49 — Isaac 78; note 84 — 

Joseph 49; note 54 — Rev. S.M.S7 
Israel, David, held in N. Y. as 

pledge fut payment, 235 note 7 — 

Isaac, trade on Delaware 22, 154 

note x8. 
Italy, 88. 
Ivanhoe 61. 

Jackson, General, 91, 125, 132, 

133. 134. 
Jacob, Master, 151 
Jacobs, Mr. 78; note 84 — Joseph, 78 

note 84. 
Jacquet, vice-director 151. 
Jamaica, 81, 85. 
James, Duke of York (James II.) 

grants religious freedom, 26. 



i68 



INDEX. 



James I. (acts) 157. 

Jameson, Dr. biography of Usse- 
linx XV. 

Janeway, William. 39, 40. 

Jefferson, Thomas, president, 59, 
63, 72, 118 

Jeffrey Lord, 61 

Jewish Historical Society, Ameri- 
can, (its establishment) viii. 

Jews* their interest in the col- 
onization of America,xi.— Spanish 
discovery of America, xii — as 
intermediaries between Moors 
and Christians, xii, — their scien- 
tific discoveries xii — spreading 
geographical science xiii, partici- 
pation in Expeditions, xiii — 
secret Jews xiii, financiers aiding 
Columbus xiii, Jews in Mexico 
xiii, Jews as new Christians in 
Mexico, xiii, — in Brazil xvii, — lib- 
erty in Rhode Island, xiv, — in 
Netherland xv, — as share-hold- 
ers of Dutch West India Co. xv, 
9— attacked by Usselinx xvi,— as 
directors of the E & W. India 
Co, xvii, 9 — in Brazil, promise 
aid xvii — desire naturalization 
xvii— disavow Christianity xvii — 
leaves Bahia for Amsterdam, 
xvii, — expelled from France, 
Spam and Portugal, 2— seeking 
refuge in Holland, and settle in 
Amsterdam, 4 — in Holland, res- 
tricted socially but privileged ini 
politics 4, — antagonized by Cath- 
olics and Dutch Protestants 6 — 
restrictions in ceremonial wor- 
ship, 6, 13, note u, — first settle- 
ment from Bahia 6 — held in N. 
Y., lor deficit in payment of 
passage money 7, 8, note 3, — 
Dutch government defends them 
against Stuyvesant,9 note 5 — col- 
ony loriued in Curacoa, 9 — Jew- 
ish directors apply for special 
privileges of trade, 10 — Stuyv. 
orders them out of N. Y. 11, 
note lo-tolerated in Rhode Island 



*Under this heading, only the principal 
events in early colonial history are summar- 
ized in chronological order. 



13— settle there 14, 15 — grant of 
land tor cemetery in N. Y. 15 — 
location 15-16 — N. Y. Jews ex- 
empt from military service 16, 17; 
note 13 — petitions for trading on 
Delaware River, 19 note 17 — 
complain to friends in Holland, 
21 — trade at Fort Orange (Al- 
bany) 22, note 19— Jews admit- 
ted as citizens, 23 — their in com- 
petency as witnesses, 45, 46, 
notes, 53 and 54 — not permitted 
to vole 46, 47. 51; notes 53, 54— 
prosperity ot N. Y. colonists, 48, 
49,505 'lote 5-iii American Army 
54; note 58 — migrate to Philadel- 
phia 55, 58, notes 58 and 62 

Joghimsen, (Joachimsen?) Daniel, 
32. 

Johnson, Miss, 106, 123. 

Jones, Col. Charles C, 67 note ']'},. 

Jones, judge Thomas, 164. 

Juda, Baruch, 31, note 32. 

Judah, Benjamin S,, 139, 145, Em- 
anuel, 103, Samuel B. H., dra- 
matic writer, his career, 139. 

Kalm, Swedish traveller, describes 
the customs and synagogal ser- 
vice of New York Jews, 48, 50 
note 55. 

Kayserlmg, Dr. Moses — on discov- 
of America, xii. — Portuguese dis- 
coveries xii — on Marranos, xiii — 
recent researches, xii — "Seph- 
ardim'' xiii. 

Keene, 109, no. 

Kent, Chancellor, 43 — Nathan, 
Judge, 136. 

King, Charles. 125, 126. 

Kohler, Rev. Dr. xii. 

La Cuya, (Lucena.?) Abraham, 

taxed, 19, note 16. 
Lamontagne, on Jewish trade, 21 

note 17. 
Lawrence. Eugene, on Jewish 

discoveries xiii. 
Laying of the Corner Stone of N. 

Y. Hebrew Orphan .Association 

V. 

Lazarus, Michael, "^G note 82. 



INDEX. 



169 



Lee 59 

Leesugg, Miss. 119. 

Legal Status of the Jews 45, 49, 
87, 89, 155. 161. 

Legislature 63. 

Leicester, 86. 

Leira, the historical town of Es- 
tramadura flourished because of 
Jews, 4. 

Levey, Richard, 22, 154, note 18. 

Leisler, Governor, 26, 28. 

Levy, Asser, protests against tax- 
ation 17, note 14 — as champion, 
18 — as merchant in Albany 22; 
note 19 — applies in vain for citi- 
zenship, 23, 32, 33 — [Asser] 
Nathan, 31,34, 43; note 32 — Hay- 
man, 52 — his high standing, 
character and influence, 52-Isaac, 
34 — Moses, 34, 49; note 54 — 2e- 
porah, Miss, 54. 

Lisbon, 29. 79, 80, 104; note 85. 

Locifhart, 61. 

London, 64, 69, 93, 108. 

Longfellow, H. W. 81 note 85. 

Lopez, Aaron, 76, TJ, 78. 79, 82, 
83, 85, 86, 89— Moses, 80, 89; 
note 85. 

Louisiana, 75. no, 116. 

Lucena, Jacob, 22, note 19. See 
De Lucena. 

Lumbrozo, Jacob, (John,) 8, 62; 
note 54, 66. 

Lyon, Isaac Nathan, 78; note 84. 
See De Lyon. 

Lyons, Rev. Jacques J., 57, loi. 

Madison, President, 59, 72, 73 — 
his indebtedness to Haym Sal- 
omon, 60, 63. 

Marache, Solomon, 60. 

Maranos, — secret Jews xiii — in 
Cuba, xiii, xvii. 

Markens, Isaac, 87, loi; note 91. 

Marques, Isaac Rodriguez 49; note 

54. 

Marvel, Andrew, on Amster- 
dam, 3. 

Maryland, Jews in 8,62, 64, 82 — in- 
tolerance in, 63, 156. 

Massachusetts, 91. 

Maxwell, Hugh, 144. 



Mears, Judah, 31, 34, note 32, 
Medus, Simon, 82, note 88, 
Mendez, Abraham, 26 — Benjamin, 

69 — Solomon. 78; note 84. 
Menasseh ben Israel to Cromwell, 

xvi. 
Menorah, xii, xiii, 41 ; note 43. 
Mercer 59. 
Merritt, William, Mayor of N. Y., 

39- 
Mesa, Isaac, 23. 
Meyer, Rev, Mr., 57. 
Mexico — settlement in, xiii. 
Mifflin, 59, 107. 
Military service, exemption of Jews 

from 17; 54, 75, 16, note 13, 
Miller, Rev. John, on location of 

first Synagogue, 27, 
Minis, Abraham, Esther, Leah, 

68, note 75; Philip, 70, Simeon, 

68, 70, 73, note 75, 
Mississippi 92, 93, 94. 
Missouri, 92, 93, 94. 
Molena, 68 note 75. 
Monroe, James, 59, 109, 112, 116, 

117, 124. 
Moors, their scientific inventions, 

xii, 88. 
Moranda, David, 68, note 75. 
Moravians, 67. 

Morris, George P. 122 — Robert 59. 
Moses, Isaac, Judah, Jacob, Moses 

78; note 84. 
Myers, Aaion, Benjamin, Moses, 

Naphtali, 78; note 84 — Solomon 

45, 78, notes 49, 84. 

Napoleon, Louis (brother of Nap. 

1.) King of Holland, removes 

Jewish Uisabilities, 4. 
Nathan Simon, 60. 
Naturahzation ot Jews, 45, 49, 82, 

155, 161 notes 49, 54, 
New Bedford, 81 note 85. 
New Castle 22. 
New England xi, 75. 
New Haven, 91. 
New Orleans, 85, 90, 91, 116, 
Newport, Jews settle m, 14, 15, 21, 

new arrivals, 29, 70, 76, "JT, 

79, 80, 82,8485,86,57,89,91, 

92; notes 83, 84, 85. 



I70 



INDEX. 



New Netlierlaiid, see New York. 

New York, Jews in xvii, 6, 58, 75. 

Niagara River, 96, 128, note 92. 

Noah, Manuel. 104 — Mordecai M. 
his career as statesman, politi- 
cian, author, dramatist and jour- 
nalist, his restoration schemes, 
96, 102, 104; note 92 — Shem, 68; 
note 75. 

Norsemen, 91. 

North Carolina 75, 156. 

Nunez, 104, Dr. 31, i ;4; note 32 — 
Joseph 31; note 32. 

Nunis, Daniel, 68; note 75— Doctor 
66, 67. 68: note 75— Moses, 
Mrs. N., Sipra, 68, note 75. 

O'Callaghan, cited, 15. 

Oglethorpe, General Geo.,64-est2b- 
lished Jewish colony, 64 — char- 
acter,66 — eulogizes Jews, 66, 67 — 
disobeys instructions injurious 
to Jews, 69, 70, 104. 

Olivera, David, Isaac, Jacob, Leah, 
68; note 75. 

Orange, Fort, 13, 20, 21, 22. 

Outrage upon a Jew by Oliver De 
Lancey, 51. 

Pacheco, Benjamin Mendes, 31; 

note 32. 
Packeckoe, Moses, 82. 
Palestine, 91, 129. 
Paris, 116. 

Parliament, 64, 82, 83. 
Payne John iloward, 120, 145. 
Peixotto, Rev. Moses L. M., 56, 57, 
Pennsylvania, Jews in, 58, 62, 75. 
Philadelphia, 89, 99, 102, 103, 104, 

105, 126. See l-'en isylvania. 
Phillips, Aaron J., 102, 103, 120— 

Jonas, 60 — Jonas B., dramatist, 

his career, 145 — Moses, S., 102. 
Phillipse, Col. Frederick, 45. 
Pimenta, Moses, 76. note 82. 
Pinto,Rev.Jos.Isaac Jerushalem,56. 
Plymouth, xiv, 108. 
Poland, 88. 
Polock, Cushman, 72, 
Portuguese, promise amnesty to 

Jews, xvii. 
Preface, v. 



Providence, "JT, note 83. 
Puff, Major Pindar, 141, 
Puritans, xiv. 

Quakers, objectionable, 14; in New- 
port, 'j'j, note 83. 

Raphall, Rabbi, 31, note 32. 
Real, Vene, 68, note 75. 
Restoration, schemes, of M. M. 

Noah, J27, 138. 
Rhode Island, "JT, 80, 82, 83, 84; 

note 83 — Jews in xiv. 14, 21, 76. 
Richmond, 99, settlement of Jews 

in, loi. 
Riviera, Abraham, 31 ; note 32 — 

Jacob, 70. 78, 79. 
Robinson, Beverly, 68— W.D., 92 

94. 96. 
Rodriguez, (Rodrigues), Isaac, 31 

45; notes 32, 49— J.R., 31, 78,79; 

note 32. 
Rogers, Robert, 162, 
Romilly, Sir Samuel, 159. 
Rosendale, Attorney General. 49, 

note 54. 
Russell, Chas. R. Esq., 78, 86, 

note 84. 
Rutgers, Harmanus, 38. 

Sabbath, non-observance of, 11, 12; 
note ID. 

Salem, no. 

Salomon, David, 78; note84— Haym 
58; staunch support of U.S. gov- 
ernment, 58, 59; death 60; note 

63- 
Salvador, Francis, 65. 
Savannah, settlement of Jews in, 

64, 69, 70, 71,72, 73.74.75.76, 

89, 91, 99, 103, 104. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 61— his Jewish 

characters, 62. 
Scovill, Jos. A. 42, 55, 56, 126, 

notes 46, 59. 
Seixas,"A.B. Judge, 131 — Benjamin 

55 — Rev. Gershoiii, 56 — Rev. 

Isaac, B. 57 — Moses, 90. 
Seward, Wniiain H. 47, 135, note 

53- 
Sharpe, Rev. John 29, note 30. 
Sheanth Israel, Cong., 33, 43, 44. 



INDEX. 



171 



Sheftail Benjamin, 68, 70, 73, 74; 
note 75— Levy, [Levi] 69, 70, 72, 
76; note 82— MSS. 67; note 73— 
Mordecai 68, 70, 74— Sheftail, 

72, 74- 

Simon, see De La Simon. 

Simson, Joseph. 45, 70, note 49. 
Sampson, 54, 70. 

Skene. Mr. 61. 

Sloughter, Governor, 27. 

Smith, Ethan, 137, Goldwin, Pro- 
fessor on Jews,vi, historian ,citecl48 

Smollett, 157. 

South Carolina — Jews in 70,71, 
75 note 82. 

South River 13, 19, 20, 21, 22. 

Southey, historian, cited xvii. 5. 

Spanish settlements, xiii. 

Sparks Jared, 54. note 58. 

Spiller, 119. 't;] 

Spinoza, 4. 

St. Clair, 59. 

Steuben, 59. 

Stiles, Dr. 81, note 85. 

Stone, Col. W. L. 143. 

Straus, Hon Oscar S. 62, note 66. 

Strictures on Jews by Rogers 162. 

Stuyvesant on Jewish settlements 
XV.— his hostility, 8, 11— orders 
them from N. Y. 11, 17, note 
10 — censured 18; note 15 — 
against Jewish trade, 20, 21; 
note 17— rebuked 21, 37, 42; 
note 46. 

Suasso, Alvarez Lopez, 65. 

Swanton, Robert, 44. 

Synagogues described 27, 28. 30, 
57, 58, 60. 71, 72. 73, 75, 80, 
81, 85. 87, 90, 92, 95^, loi, 108, 
note 85. 

Taxation, unequal, 19. 
Tennis, 39. 
Thorburn, Grant, 32. 
Thurlow, 158. 



Tobias,Joseph,MichaeI,76; note 82. 

Tomlin's Dictionary, 157. 

Touro, Abraham, D. 85, 90. — Rev. 

Isaac, 81. 85; note 87.— Jacob, 

85, 90. — Judah, 90, 91. 
Tripoli, 106, 107, 108. 
Tuckerman, H. T., 80, note 85. 
Tunis, 107, 108, 109, no, III, 

113, 114, 121, 122, 130. 

Usselinx, William, xv, his ani- 
mosity toward Jews, xvi, xvii. 
Utrecht, treaty of 3. 

Van Buren, 133, 134, 135. 
Van Halten Arent, 7, note 3. 
Van Hnrne, Cornelius, 45. 
Van Tienhoven, Cornelius 7, il, 

12; notes 3, 10. 
Van Vinge 11, note 10. 
Verbrugge, Johannes, 11, note 10 
Verplanck Gulian C, 141. 
Virginia 75, see Richmond. 

Walworth, Chancellor, 44. 
Washington, city, 116, 117, — Gen. 

Georgp, 104 
Webb, Colonel. 133, 134 
Webbers, Wolfert, 37, 39. 
Wheaton, Henry, 117, 118. 
Wilkes, Miss, 61. 
Willey, Noe, 39, 42 — Roy, 39,40. 

41, 42 
Webb, Col. 133, 
Williams Roger, xiv, 13. 
William the Silent, 3. 
Wilson, 59. 
Winterbotham, 71. 
Wolcott, 140 

Wolfertsen, Pieter, 7, note 3. 
Wolf, Hon. Simon, 55, note 58. 

60. note 63; pleads for Haym 

Salomon's descendants. 

Young, Mrs. C. L. 106. 



ERRATA. 



Page 19, note, line 3. For " De Coster," read " Da Costa." 

Page 26, line 23. For " may have it," read " may have bad it." 

Page 31, note, line 13. For " Riviero,'' read '■ Rivera." 

Page 44, line 15. For " Harman," read " Harmon." 

Page 45, lines 6, 11, 13, 16. For " Col. Phillips," read " Col. Phillipse." 

Page 46, note, line 11. For " adapted," read " adopted." 

Pase 49, note, lines 3, 28. For '• Brida," read " Breda." 

Page 51, note, line i. For "60," read "61." 

Page 62, note, line 8. Word " Editor " omitted. 

Page 75, note, line 10. For " natural," read " maternal.'' 

Page 109, line 6 Substitute comma for period, •' that '' for " That." 

Page IIS, line 7. Substitute semi-colon for period read " That" for " that. 

Page 117, line 2. For " Presidency," read '' President." 

Page 13s, line 18. For " after," read " afterwards." 

Page 135, line 27. For •' commercial," read " criminal." 

Page 155, line 25. For " ever," read " every." 



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